Kanongata'a-Suisuiki AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. It's an absolute privilege to be the last speaker to make this contribution on the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the leadership of the Minister for Children Oranga Tamariki the Hon Kelvin Davis. He spoke earlier today and he recalled the journey of this bill by acknowledging the previous Minister the Hon Tracey Martin and her leadership in shepherding this important bill into the House.I also want to extend my acknowledgment of the chair of the Social Services and Community Committee. I am part of that select committee and it is an example of when we here in Parliament work well in select committee we come out with something that's great. And for the children and caregivers that this bill covers it's meaningful and it's worthwhile. I want to also acknowledge the officials that supported the select committee in our work and also the officials within the Minister's office for their support in terms of getting this the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill into the House at its third reading. I am the last speaker.I also want to acknowledge the 31 submitters who took the time because they know that this is important for children and young people they know this is important for caregivers to let us know what they think. But I want to acknowledge a couple of the young people that came to make submissions on this bill. One of them was my Youth Parliamentarian from Youth Parliament in 2019 Jennifer Thornrithi. Jennifer was a child in care. She was able to share her experience about her journey in care. So I just want to make mention of Jennifer's experience coming to select committee. In acknowledging Jennifer Thornrithi and her submission at the select committee I want to acknowledge that there are around 24000 children who are not today with their mother or their father or both of their parents. So I want to acknowledge the children: it is by no means your fault that you ended up in a place where your parents for one reason or another are unable to care for you. I was myself as I said in my couple of contributions on this bill raised by my grandfather and then when he passed my uncle raised me until I was able to come to New Zealand to join my mother. So yeah if we ask in terms of those 24000 children if those people weren't able to care for them or put their hand up then it'd be a different story. So I want to acknowledge and say thank you to the caregivers who have taken the role of being parents to those grandparents caring for grandchildren—they have taken the extra care that's required for their mokopuna to provide care as a parent would. As previous speakers have spoken about we looked at this in terms of—in my last contribution in this bill I spoke about the money having to follow the child. This is an example of how that statement is true. Before the bill came about for a child or young person who was in care of the State caregivers were able to have a birthday allowance for them when it was their birthday and at Christmas they were able to have a Christmas allowance for those in care. However in comparison to children who were either on the orphan's benefit or unsupported child's benefit those children weren't eligible for those payments. So when we talk about equity of payment we're actually talking about that if a child is without their parent then that child is deserving of a birthday allowance. Then we also at select committee changed the Christmas allowance to a holiday allowance. In Minister Davis' kōrero in the second reading he mentioned that it would be another day that the caregiver would make special for the child for our children". That's what I remember from the Minister's second reading speech.So that's what this bill does. It acknowledges that whether a child is in the care of the State the care of a grandparent or any other adults they do need the support. In my experience as a social worker and as a manager and working with children sometimes for caregivers that little extra support financially means a whole lot. It means they can continue to care for the child in their care. So that's why this bill although it may be small in numbers of pages it means a lot. So that's what we mean by equity of care of financial support. Also if one was an unsupported child on the unsupported child's benefit the caregiver and the child or the young person had to prove that the child would be in their care for 12 months. So this bill changes the 12-month rule to make it simpler for a caregiver to just provide care so that the children and young people in their care continue to receive that care.Also when I spoke about the Christmas allowance at the select committee we decided to change it to a "holiday allowance" because it acknowledges that we're growing as a country and that for some religions Christmas is not something that they have in their religion. So that's why we changed it at the select committee to a "birthday allowance". There was a lot of discussion on the orphan's benefit. English is my second language and I've always thought that being an orphan was having both parents pass away. But the orphan's benefit as described in the social security bill is paid to children whose parents are deceased or whose parents are missing or whose parents have serious disability. That was difficult for the committee to change the name. But in hindsight I was thinking we probably could have just moved the benefit into "unsupported child" for a missing parent and just leave the orphans benefit by itself. We've had many contributors in this House speak about their experiences like the member Camilla Belich has mentioned. But I want to acknowledge Karen Chhour from the ACT Party because she is someone who brings the care experience and someone who when provided with the right support can be a member of Parliament can come and add their voice of experience into making laws about children and about how her experience now has added value in this House and of course Matua Glen Bennett and his experience as a caregiver. On behalf of all of us Matua Glen Bennett thank you for caring for children and do continue to do that because it is a calling to be able to care for children. I myself would find that a challenge. So I want to echo what the Minister has said in his many speeches—taking his hat off to all the caregivers out there. On behalf of everybody that has spoken that has made submissions on this bill we just want to say thank you. Thank you for your care and your love and support of our children and please do continue to do that and all the people that have worked too in the administration of this allowance in the Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki. Treat this as if it's for your own child. And on that note I commend Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill to the House. Kia ora.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time."