Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in this first reading of the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill and I want to start my comments this evening by just saying what an extraordinary job the 15000 caregivers in New Zealand provide for 22000 children whose parents are unable to care for them for a range of reasons. Those caregivers whether they are caregiving for children who are in the care of the State or looking after children within their immediate whānau or extended whānau take on quite a challenge and National accepts that there are some issues that need to be addressed; so we will be supporting this bill to select committee but I do just want to raise a couple of areas that will require consideration by the select committee.I think the other thing that I want to say from the outset is we recognise that the children who are being cared for by people other than their own parents have a number of challenges and so what we have seen through the evidence presented through the select committee in the last term of Parliament was actually the ongoing financial hardship that the children themselves can experience. So I do recognise it's really important that children who already have some challenges don't remain permanently behind and that we do give them the opportunity through this system of support to ensure that they come out of this on equal footing with any other New Zealand child. So I do think there are some issues that do need to be addressed. But it's also looking at the reality that when a family member is taking on the care of a child within their family there might be some families who do have financial means to be able to support that child. So there is an area there in terms of at what point or what is the line at which taxpayers or the State should universally provide support as opposed to providing financial support to those families who need it. Can I say in my own electorate having met with extraordinary organisations like Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust and Kids in Need Waikato there are families who experience extreme hardship and in many cases the families that take on caring for others' children actually in some cases have greater challenges than the parents who are not caring for their own children. So we've got to recognise that and I do want to put on record in this House the extraordinary work that Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust do and other organisations like Kids in Need Waikato which provide practical support for those who are raising other people's children. In some cases it's short term but one of the things that we have learnt—and I want to put on record the work that the Hon Anne Tolley did in the significant changes to the organisation and the way in which we look after children in State care; part of that was addressing the children's concerns about the stability and the certainty and the security in the family that they went to. So if one of those challenges is providing financial assistance to that family to make sure that child is able to stay there for a longer period of time and have less movements then that's absolutely going to be better for that child. So where there is a family who has a need then absolutely we want to make sure that they get financial assistance that supports them raising that child either on a short-term basis or hopefully for a longer-term basis because we know from listening to the voices of those children they don't want to continue to be moved from house to house. That's why the Home for Life was set up. There were two surveys that were undertaken by the Hon Tracey Martin when she was the Minister for Children and it was her work that led to this bill being introduced. The first was a survey in 2019 that was conducted on behalf of Oranga Tamariki. That survey revealed that 32 percent of the participants believed that the allowances they received were inadequate to meet the financial costs associated with caring for a child. Interestingly though three months later in December 2019 another survey was published by Oranga Tamariki and that survey revealed that caregivers were divided on whether the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit were sufficient. So even within Oranga Tamariki the jury's out if you like in terms of whether the financial support is enough or whether it's sufficient. So in the select committee process we do actually want to hear from caregivers who are able to present their arguments in terms of whether it should be universal support or whether it should be targeted. I would argue that there'd be some families who take on children literally within an hour's notice and they might require greater levels of financial support. One of the things that National's really proud of is making sure that support should be targeted to where it is needed most. What that might mean is that for some there's a greater level of support particularly at the start rather than a universal application. And of course it goes without saying that actually any investment by the taxpayer and by the State should be much earlier on. That's why National has committed to investing in the first thousand days of a child's life to support a family so that hopefully we will be able to prevent some children being taken into State care or being required to be in this situation where they are being raised by people other than their own parents. So with the removal of the 12-month rule we do accept that will be required for some and we want in the select committee process to hear from submitters about whether that's the majority whether it's some. We want to make sure that it couldn't be abused in any way and just to make sure that there is some robust scrutiny around how that would work. In terms of the Christmas rule or the Christmas and birthday allowances that is a bit of a no-brainer. It does seem unusual that those allowances are paid to the foster caregivers and not to others. As we all know and some will remember and be dealing with families who are in desperate circumstances right now Christmas and the holiday period come with additional costs and pressures and stress and that is never good for a family. We know that actually the long-term impacts on a child can be devastating; so we do think that the change to the Christmas and birthday allowances makes sense. We do want to make sure that children in care have very similar experiences in their childhood to children who are raised in families with their own parents. So we do want to make sure that there is a good number of people who submit on the bill and I do hope in terms of addressing this comment to the Minister for Children that given we are going into the Christmas period there is sufficient time and consideration for people to be able to submit on this legislation particularly families that have challenges. They deserve to have an equal opportunity if not more to provide a submission and I hope in the select committee process there isn't any suggestion that their opportunity to do so is reduced. As I said National supports this bill. We support the intent of it. We do want to make sure as in any instance where taxpayer funds are committed that there is sufficient scrutiny and that there's a balance between universal support and targeted support to those who may need it more. So I'm pleased to announce National will be supporting this bill in the first reading to select committee.