Bennett Paula: Vulnerable Children Bill Children Young Persons and Their Families (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill KiwiSaver (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett Paula: Vulnerable Children Bill Children Young Persons and Their Families (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill KiwiSaver (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 19 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18739. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development):I move That the Vulnerable Children Bill the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill and the KiwiSaver (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. In this country from the moment a child is born or even conceived the Government is there to provide support for them their parents and their wider family. We have free education and our schools are the envy of many countries. Good health care is available and affordable. Currently our under-sixes can go to the doctor for free and from next year that will include every child under 13. On a broader level our kids can pretty much play any sport or musical instrument that they choose. They can aspire to the highest levels of Government or business or anything they want no matter their gender sexuality ethnicity or their background. We seem to have all the right settings for our children to grow into happy healthy adults who aspire to achieve great things.However we have problems in this country that despite decades of attention and funding have not changed for the better for too many of our children. In our country child abuse is a shameful problem that every New Zealander has a stake in. On average around eight children each year die as a result of abuse neglect or assault. Many more are found by Child Youth and Family to have been abused or neglected with nearly 23000 substantiated cases of abuse or neglect just in the last financial year. There are also a significant number of children in circumstances that put them at really serious risk of harm. The costs to the country are significant; the costs to children are simply unacceptable.I have been the Minister for Social Development since 2008 and every single day the needs of these very children have been at the forefront of the work that we have done. The faces of the children and adults I have met who have shared their shocking sickening and horrific stories are with me and many New Zealanders every day. I remember the 6-year-old who was proudly showing me around one of our facilities and who paused at the door of the bedroom took a deep breath and reminded herself that actually bed can be a safe place. I remember the wonderfully eccentric man at the Wellington City Mission who took me through his life story and after half an hour of talking I could trace his lifetime of pain and suffering back to his horrendous abuse as a child.So where were we? Where was the Government? Where were other New Zealanders then for people like him? In 2012 we launched the White Paper for Vulnerable Children and the Children’s Action Plan which set out an extensive package of reforms to address child abuse and neglect in New Zealand. The reforms would be nothing without the close to 10000 submissions from New Zealanders. These bills are a critical step in giving effect to the changes in the Children’s Action Plan. These include ensuring joint accountability across justice health education police and social development for the well-being of our vulnerable children. They also include the new requirements for the screening and vetting of Government workers and contractors who work with children. All up these new requirements will cover around 182000 New Zealanders. There are also new workforce restrictions to prevent those with serious convictions who pose a danger to children from coming into contact with them. The legislation will also switch the onus on parents who have killed or severely abused or neglected a child and they will now have to prove they are safe to parent subsequent children.But let me be very clear: this legislation contained in these bills is a small part of the work that is already under way and that has to be done under the Children’s Action Plan. We can pass laws to improve screening and vetting. We can pass laws that place restrictions on dangerous people where there are currently none but we cannot pass laws that stop children being beaten neglected or sexually and emotionally abused. I believe that anyone in this House would have passed those laws plenty of times over if they could have. We cannot pass laws that stop children being killed by those who should love and protect them. We cannot expect that throwing more money at this problem without changing how we work will actually fix anything. Accepting that this is as good as it gets for those children is simply not good enough.So that is where the Children’s Action Plan of which these bills arising from the Vulnerable Children Bill is just one part will make a difference. It is multi-dimensional cross-agency and community driven. It is more than 30 interwoven initiatives and it will bring the right people together in communities around our vulnerable kids. It will give us a whole lot more options to respond to the different needs of these most vulnerable children. Firstly we want to support vulnerable children and work alongside their families to keep them safe so that they never reach the point where they need the involvement of Child Youth and Family. This is very much trying to get in early to prevent that really serious abuse and neglect.That is where our new Children’s Teams come in along with the new hub that takes notifications from the public the police and other organisations and then plugs it into the vulnerable kids’ information system to make sure that there is then that follow-through on who is intervening at what level and where. They work with children and young people who are vulnerable but who are best helped outside of Child Youth and Family’s statutory service. As well as doctors teachers and social workers there is Plunket Family Start Whānau Ora parenting services iwi services and budgeting services to name but a few. Too often vulnerable children are still at the back of the queue when trying to access these services. It makes absolutely no sense that they are the children who need it most but because their parents are either unable to advocate for them or do not have the skills to do it they are always it seems at the back of the queue and we fight to get them at the front.I have had enough. New Zealanders have had enough. This legislation will mean that that joint accountability across chief executives will change the whole dynamic throughout our agencies. That is for me a big start in what really needs to be done. We have to back up the work that is happening on the ground. Too often it is the Government following the lead of communities. Actually that is fine but more often we are a barrier to the work that could be done in accessing services for these very children.The Children’s Teams understand the unique needs of each child they deal with. They then have direct access to services whether it is health justice social work or housing and they can fast-track these most vulnerable children through that system. The support also goes to their parents where it needs to. So if we have mothers and fathers with mental health or drug and alcohol issues or with problems finding work we can make sure that they get access to those sorts of services as well. Our two pilot teams in Rotorua and Whangarei have worked with over 110 children so far. We are hearing about better attendance at health appointments better parenting re-enrolments at early childhood education and school better access to welfare support happier children better behaviour and reduced offending. There has been a lot of learning and some hurdles along the way and I think there is going to be a whole lot more but it is clear that the mix of services and that early support is what will make some of the biggest differences.I want to thank the Social Services Committee. I really want to thank all those officials who have put so much into this not just of their professional time but I know of their personal time because they saw it as that important and who stayed late worked over Christmas and did all those sorts of those things. I am really cognisant of that and extremely grateful. But I think that most of all I want to thank New Zealanders for giving attention to these children not just when there is a horrific case. Too often we turn our attention to them when there is a name and a face that we can put to it and I understand that—I do it myself—but I think we have to care about them every day. I thank the House and those members who are supporting the bill. I will treat that with the respect that I know it deserves. With that I commend these bills to the House.