Lotu-Iiga Sam: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13764. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie):Malo lesoifua. It is a real privilege tonight to speak on the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill. May I first commend the member in charge of the bill Tracey Martin—first for sharing your personal story with us and with the nation in terms of why it is important to you and second for bringing this bill to the House. National will support this bill in its first reading.It is about equity as you have outlined in your speech. It is about aligning the rights of orphans and unsupported children to those of foster children. For that I certainly commend you. It is also about supporting children in need. As the member has stated our Government this National Government has put in place a number of measures to support young children vulnerable children in need. But there is much more to be done in this area and certainly this bill goes some way to addressing the needs of our children.Thirdly this bill assists kin carers those grandparents and thosewhānau members who are looking after children sometimes through no choice of their own and sometimes to support a parent as the member has said who may be incarcerated may be missing or may be taking a break. It supports those family members who take up the challenge of looking after these children in need. I think many people out there and many members here will appreciate the work that kin carers and grandparents do. I have seen it certainly in my own family. Having been raised by my grandmother for a number of months in the very early stages of my life I appreciate those moments and the support that I received personally. But other members here will certainly have stories in their own personal lives and their own families that can relate to this bill specifically. I have also seen the needs of constituents in my electorate office who have come in very much in need and very much wanting to support theirwhānau with limited resources. This bill goes some way to addressing the needs of those people who are looking after these children.But as the member has already stated we live in fiscally constrained times. Certainly it is about using taxpayers’ money in a wise way and in an orderly fashion that is targeted to those kids who need these resources the most. But above all it is about addressing the needs of those individual children and what is in their best interests what their needs are and how the State can through the Government support those children.As Ms Martin has stated negotiations have been going on to address some of these needs and to ask how we can better target the spending in this area. The Minister for Social Development has set up a ministerial reference group of which Tracey Martin is a member along with our own colleague Alfred Ngaro as well as representatives from foster care and iwi and of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. They all have representatives on this group which is working towards putting together a package of options in order to better give extra financial assistance to and ideas towards better ways of spending the money on these children who require it most. That is part of the Children’s Action Plan which the Minister the Hon Paula Bennett is in the process of implementing.I look forward to the deliberations in front of the Social Services Committee which I chair because we will be looking at some of the options. We will be looking in good faith at building on the work that has already been under way. I certainly look forward to working across the aisle as well with a newly appointed spokesperson for the Labour Party Sue Moroney. I am sure Labour will join other parties across this Chamber tonight to support this bill.It also supports the White Paper for Vulnerable Children which was announced and where this funding—$10 million worth of additional kin carers’ costs—will be covered. Certainly it is part of an overall regime whereby we are implementing laws to address the needs of vulnerable children. We have just heard earlier tonight about another bill looking at sentencing that the honourable memberLe’au Asenati Lole-Taylor introduced. That bill is another part of the jigsaw puzzle that will go towards mitigating just some of the factors involved in caring for our vulnerable children. Also as the member in charge of this bill stated in 2009 National ensured that kin carers got the same weekly amount as foster carers. Again it was about equity in terms of the weekly amounts that these kids received. It was about addressing a need in the community and this Government again responded swiftly to that upon coming into Government to address those inequities in the system.I just want to touch briefly on other parenting support that is out there in our communities. This Government in partnership with Grandparents Raising Grandchildren as well as The Parenting Place which is an organisation that does wonderful work in our communities has developed a tailored tool box programme specifically for kin caregivers at a cost of $600000 per year. It acts as a refresher course for grandparents who are for whatever reason returning to front-line parenting duties maybe many years after having raised their own children and after having taken a break. The course gives a little bit of insight into how children’s early experiences might affect them now and into the future. They are useful tools and it is part of providing not just the resources like direct funding but also the tools to allow kin carers to better look after the kids who are within their guidance and their care.So this bill as I said at the outset is a commendable bill. It is a bill that really does focus on those kids who are in need. I still believe that much work needs to be done in terms of targeting some of those dollars to the needs of children and theirwhānau and when we talk about these kids in particular we are talking about kids whose carers are predominantly from low socio-economic groups. You know every dollar that is dedicated to the kids’ upbringing is certainly valued by thosewhānau and the families who are looking after these young kids. So this bill is commendable. It is a bill that we are certainly looking forward to assessing in the select committee. It will help those many thousands of children out there who need assistance. I certainly commend this bill to the House and look forward to its process through the select committee.