Lee Melissa: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 12 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8451. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 Mr Chair—can you hear me? Oh now it is working. Fantastic. I would like to first of all start off by congratulating the Minister for Social Development the Hon Paula Bennett on the immense amount of work that she does in this very very difficult and challenging area. This particular portfolio—as my colleague Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga who is the chair of the Social Services Committee has mentioned—through the Ministry of Social Development administers around $21 billion a year. It is the largest of the Government’s spending. It is actually a third of all Government expenditure and provides services to more than 1.6 million people. The range of work that is actually carried out by the ministry is really huge and varied from the care and protection of vulnerable children to student allowances and fees so the workload is actually quite humongous. 
I want to talk a little bit about the Government’s Children’s Action Plan because I know that everyone around this Chamber cares about our vulnerable children. Our children mean so much to us. This Government’s Children’s Action Plan is such a positive initiative that targets support and services to our most vulnerable children through more than 30 new initiatives introduced in the White Paper for Vulnerable Children. These initiatives are the result of months of research discussions and policy development. There were roughly around 10000 submissions sent in on the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children. I went to some of these meetings and there were lots of heated and vibrant discussions around the green paper as well as consultation with key experts in health justice education and social services and what international best practices show keeps children safe from harm. As part of a Government team that actually went right around the country to talk about the White Paper for Vulnerable Children I was very heartened by talking to the people in the districts actually because every time I met people talking about the white paper they were passionate. They were very positive about doing something. I guess it is because they are sickened by the fact that you know we have not done so well in terms of neglected children. Some of the children have been so abused in this country and we should be ashamed. This Government is doing something about it. 
It is time for fundamental change and this Government is doing that through the Children’s Action Plan. The white paper and the Children’s Action Plan go beyond politics. They are not only for the generation of children who are growing up now. They are for the generations of children to come. The Children’s Action Plan will be the basis of the most significant advancement in child protection that this country has seen. It gives us clear easy direction on how our child protection system will be reformed and on the new measures that will be implemented over the next 10 years. 
Many people are concerned about children but are reluctant to call Child Youth and Family about their concerns. The new Child Protect line will be the first point of contact to call to ensure the right response. The Vulnerable Kids Information System will be set up to hold information on children in one place so that relevant professionals who work with children will be able to access all the information from one place. Would it not be fantastic if teachers who deal with children and notice that children are being abused can actually pick up information and realise that that child has been to hospital with broken bones has been abused and has been beaten and that people can take action as a result of this shared information? It is great to see the new children’s teams which are going to be created right across Government agencies working together with regional directors to coordinate locally the responses to individual lives. This regional ownership of the teams is a crucial element in this trial because the evidence is that local solutions work best to meet local needs. 
We are responsible for the welfare and well-being of our children. The Government’s Children’s Action Plan will mean tough new restrictions for abusers through child abuse prevention orders that will allow judges to stop child abusers from—