Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak on the third reading of the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. I'd like to begin as many have done before me by thanking the 15000 caregivers who are currently on the unsupported child's benefit (UCB) and the orphan's benefit (OB) who have stepped in as part of a wider community to look after our tamariki.I'm starting by touching on the issue that this bill is trying to address around the disparities that have for too long existed between caregivers who are in the benefit system and the welfare system compared to those that end up looking after children that are in State care and receive a foster care allowance. I think the intent of this bill was really positive and I commend the Minister for progressing it because I do think that the disparities that have existed between those receiving a UCB or OB and the foster care allowance have created the conditions where we're creating barriers for children to remain in their communities and with their wider whānau instead of going into State care. I do think we should all aim for State care to be the absolute last resort and seek ways in which our children can remain rooted in their communities.This bill introduces some changes which other speakers have spoken about and one of the key ones which will enable more people to step into that caregiving role and be supported by the State in doing so is changing the eligibility criteria for those looking after children for less than 12 months. That change reminds me a lot of the experiences I faced in my previous role as coordinator of Auckland Action Against Poverty where I met countless people on the benefit who struggled to access the support that they needed because of the very restrictive criteria. So I do also want to pay tribute to the many people who came through our doors at that time my colleagues who continue informing the work that I do in this House and that instructed me and helped feed me the knowledge to create the Supplementary Order Paper that we tried to put forward.Other changes include establishing the holiday and birthday allowances and this does help ensure that caregivers have access not only to an allowance that supports a child's important milestones such as a birthday but also to celebrate holidays of cultural significance—and I want to pay tribute to the select committee for finding a way to rename the allowance in a way that was a little bit more culturally competent and I think that's a great thing we got through so I thank my colleagues for that. The other thing that these allowances will do is address the issue of income inadequacy that too many whānau on the benefit face. There's still issues that I think we need to address such as the fact that there's a bit of discrimination on the rates that people get paid based on their age within the welfare system and I look forward to the Government hopefully doing more work in that regard.During the select committee hearings what we heard plenty on—on top of most submitters actually supporting the changes proposed by this bill—was a really strong call for some changes to the criteria around the breakdown in the family. So while submitters were not necessarily always able to give a cohesive or clear alternative proposal to the current barriers that exist I think most people acknowledged that there needed to be changes in terms of the family breakdown criteria. One of the reasons why we decided to put an amendment to that and to help make this bill go further and pass through into enabling our children to thrive was that the current barriers on top of the 12-month period that this bill is addressing is the fact that requiring a breakdown in the family ultimately creates the conditions where people are told—especially those in whāngai arrangements or in other arrangements—that in order for your wider village to step in and to look after a child there is a breakdown and that the biological parents or the parents looking after the child were somehow unwilling or uncaring. It creates that negative stigma when actually for many cultures—including my own culture back in Mexico—it is quite common for your wider village to step in to raise a child. It's not about a lack of love or a lack of support; it's actually an acknowledgment that you often need a wider community to step in.So I was confused when in the previous contributions by the National Party members Louise Upston pointed out that that was an issue that needed addressing. I commend the member for pointing out that this is hopefully an area of work that the Government will commit to later down the track. But then I was puzzled by her colleague Maureen Pugh then saying that perhaps I didn't listen to the submitters hard enough because this is actually something raised by submitters as an issue that needed more work. At the end of the day this is not about putting children in unstable homes; this is actually about ensuring that children are able to remain within their communities that they're able to be connected to their wider whānau and that we look at ways in which State care is not the first option rather that it becomes the last resort when no other options are available for children.So I do hope and trust that the Minister is intending to embark on more work to reform—and I pay tribute to Minister Carmel Sepuloni who's here in the House today and I know that the Minister is doing more work to overhaul our welfare system—and that whatever further reforms to the unsupported child's benefit look like we do ensure that our welfare system stops discriminating whānau and whāngai arrangements or just wider communities putting in to look after children. So I do think that this bill will do some great stuff for the community and the Green Party will continue advocating for our welfare reforms to go further and faster so that communities can thrive. Kia ora.