Ngaro Alfred: Vulnerable Children Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Vulnerable Children Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17272. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National): The greatest disappointment was when the last speaker Metiria Turei continued to go on about child poverty. The greatest disappointment was when that member basically said to the whole of New Zealand that if you are impoverished then you are more likely to abuse your kids and to neglect your kids. I tell you that most of New Zealand needs to know that that was a speech that put the blame on that. Here are the reasons why.The last member who spoke would not like this but when the Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills came to give a submission at the Social Services Committee this is what he said. He is part of the Child Poverty Action Group which goes around and talks about this issue. Dr Russell Wills said this: “Poverty is the secondary issue. The issue around vulnerable children is absolutely important. The direction of the Vulnerable Children Bill is important. Its focus is important. Its intention to address the core issues is absolutely important.” So we now have the Children’s Commissioner stating that really clearly. I will say it again. He said that poverty is the secondary issue; vulnerability neglect and abuse are the critical issues. Here are the reasons he gave: the reality is that abuse and neglect have no ethnicity tag and they have no socio-economic tag. We cannot go out and say that because you are impoverished you are more likely to abuse and neglect your kids. I can tell you this: if you go into any community you will see that community rise up and condemn any person who says that. That is what is happening.Hon Member: Rubbish.ALFRED NGARO: It is not rubbish; it is the truth. Back when the Hon Steve Maharey was the Minister for Social Development I was part of the NGO sector which turned round and after the Mick Brown report put together what we called the blueprint. The blueprint had the intention of bringing all of the sectors together. The report talked about siloed operations. There was a lack of champions. There was a lack of commitment to responsibility for the issues in the sector around abuse neglect and the vulnerability of our children.What this bill has done is at the heart of that. I have got to tell you—and Dr Prasad knows this—that those recommendations were never upheld and they were never taken on board. But what this Minister has done is firstly to take on one of the core principles—leadership—that came out of those recommendations. She has taken on that core principle leadership to ensure we have accountability and responsibility. The Vulnerable Children Bill is about responsibility. It is about being accountable to New Zealanders about the importance of vulnerable children and about the neglect that happens in our community. These are the things that are important. At the highest level there are five chief executives of five key Government departments who are held accountable. Why is that important? Because that accountability is about their responsibility about Government responsibility.Can I also say this: the responsibility of addressing the issues of abuse and neglect in our communities is not just the Government’s. That last speaker from the Greens keeps talking about Government responsibility but she is afraid to front up to our communities and talk about community responsibility. We know what we need to be responsible for. This bill has done that. We know that it has the support of the Labour Party and we know that it is being responsible. The thing about what the Green Party members say and want to do is that they think the responsibility of care when dealing with abuse and neglect is entirely that of the Government and not of the community.We think this is a very good bill. It is comprehensive. There were 115 submissions; 62 were oral submissions. We have worked constructively and collectively together. We also have the support of the Labour caucus to ensure that this bill absolutely fulfils its primary obligation around the abuse and neglect of our vulnerable children in New Zealand. I commend this bill to the House.