Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker and thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this very fine piece of legislation the KiwiSaver (Foster Parents Opting in for Children in their Care) Amendment Bill in its second reading in the name of my very good friend and colleague Hamish Walker the excellent MP for Clutha-Southland. I just want to acknowledge Hamish Walker here for a minute because of the hard work—Hon Member: Only a minute?SIMEON BROWN: —that he is doing—actually for 10 minutes. No I'll talk about the bill but I want to talk about the work that he's doing and the fact that he is listening to his constituents and trying to make sure that their views their concerns and the issues which matter to them are being brought to this House. I know how hard he is working in doing that particularly with the work he's doing around the Lumsden Maternity Centre as well.I also want to just put on the record my appreciation for the hard work that our foster carers do in New Zealand. I have met with a number of foster carers in my own electorate of Pakuranga and want to acknowledge them for the hard work that they do in making sure that the most vulnerable children in our community have a safe home a loving home and somewhere where they can be cared for. But I also want to just say that from the experiences that they've shared with me it's a challenging relationship with foster children because often those foster children will only be with them for a short period of time sometimes for longer and being able to be considered their legal guardian can be a process which takes some time.That brings me to the importance of this piece of legislation which has a very worthy goal of ensuring that foster children are able to open their own KiwiSaver accounts. That's an important goal because being able to secure one's own financial future—their own financial independence their own ability to make their own decisions in their lives into their future—is an important one that we believe all New Zealanders should be able to have. We know how important it is for young people to be able to start saving early so that they are able to purchase their first home and the fact that their KiwiSaver funds can be used for that.I'd like to acknowledge all of the submitters who submitted on this bill. I wasn't part of the select committee but I've spoken to Hamish Walker throughout this process and he's kept me well informed because it's an issue that I hold very dear to my heart as well. He has explained some of the process and some of the submitters and some of the stories that have been heard through this process.In particular there were two stories which stood out to me which I think are worthy of being repeated here in the House because of what this bill is trying to do. One of them was a story of a young child who was very committed to saving every penny and every dime and managed to save $2000. But that money was then stolen by his foster parents. I think that was an incredibly sad story to hear and it's something which highlights the importance of a KiwiSaver savings scheme which locks that money away makes sure it's ring-fenced and is there for that young person to be able to make their own decisions and their own choices as to what they want to do in their lives.The second one was another young person who had managed to save $700—not a huge amount of money but a substantial amount of money for a young person to have saved—and that money was then lost because that child had moved so many times between foster homes. That highlights what many of our foster children do the number of homes that they are in and the journey that they are on in their journey through life as they make their way into adulthood. So this bill seeks to allow those young people the opportunity to be able to open up their own KiwiSaver funds to secure their future as it were to be able to make decisions for their future.But this bill in the National Party's view doesn't go far enough. Currently the law states under section 35 of the KiwiSaver Act that children under the age of 16 can only be enrolled if all their guardians consent or if approved by the guardian of—the Act defines the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act guardian as the following people or organisations under circumstances of the Oranga Tamariki Act: the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki an iwi social exchange a cultural social service or the director of a child and family support service. Unfortunately what that has meant is that Oranga Tamariki has never opened a KiwiSaver account for a foster child despite many requests being made to social workers for that to be done. That is because they do not get across the desk.What this bill does is it changes that so that those children who do have a legal guardian will be able to. It will be as the title of the bill suggests the Oranga Tamariki guardian and they will be able to open a KiwiSaver account for the child in their care. However this leaves approximately 5900 foster children who are without a guardian without the ability to be able to open a KiwiSaver account and so the vast majority of young people who are in foster care will still not have the ability to be able to open a KiwiSaver account. I think that's something which this House does need to reflect on as we go towards the committee stage.I'm pleased that this will be going through with support from across this House but as it goes towards the committee stage I hope that this is something where all sides of this House can consider the Supplementary Order Papers which my good friend and colleague Hamish Walker will be putting forward to try and seek to widen the number of foster children who are able to open up their own KiwiSaver accounts.I think it's important to note that yes there are concerns around the fees that KiwiSaver accounts can accrue and young people being able to understand what their KiwiSaver account may mean. I know that not all KiwiSaver providers are going to necessarily remove all the fees and that's certainly something to be aware of in part of that conversation with the young person but there are also many young people who are incredibly aspirational and want the ability to be able to secure their future and to open their KiwiSaver accounts to be able to take some control in their own lives because this may be one of the only ways that they will be able to actually show some independence and have some independence and make decisions for themselves.So I commend this bill to the House. It is an excellent piece of legislation. As I said at the start it shows a member of Parliament who is listening to his constituents who is trying to make sure that the issues which come across his desk are brought to this Parliament and that is exactly what I tried to do with my bill on synthetic drugs. Unfortunately the Government decided to vote that down but this bill I'm glad is continuing to progress and I wish Hamish Walker all the very best with the continuing stages and I hope that it can be widened up so that as many foster children as possible are able to open KiwiSaver accounts. I commend this bill to the house.Bill read a second time.Name changed to KiwiSaver (Oranga Tamariki Guardians) Amendment Bill.