Heatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHeatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 10 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9208. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.Hon PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) to theMinister for Social Development: What announcements has she made as part of the Children’s Action Plan to support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): As part of the White Paper for Vulnerable Children we announced an extra $10 million to help with carers’ additional costs. Today I have announced the establishment of a ministerial reference group that will provide me with advice on how best to allocate that financial support to grandparents who are raising grandchildren and other kin carers. Grandparents Raising Grandchildren will be part of the group to provide that formal advice as will Fostering Kids and I am looking forward to receiving it.Hon Phil Heatley: What has the reference group been asked to focus on?Hon PAULA BENNETT: The terms of reference ask the group to provide options on the extra financial assistance to facilitate ideas from the wider community and to provide a report to me in August. What I have done though is ask it to think outside the box—that this need not be another allowance via Work and Income that it could think about it being administered quite differently and to be better targeted on need and I look forward to receiving it.Hon Phil Heatley: How else is the Government supporting grandparents raising grandchildren?Hon PAULA BENNETT: There are a number of ways. We have given them access to respite care in the past. We have made sure that they have had advice on the parenting that they needed when they are second-time parents if you like. We are now able to offer them that extra financial assistance. I recently gave them someone very senior within Work and Income who can cut through issues or problems that might be being made. This group though that we are setting up and is exploring ways of grant funding—we have got a really good cross-section I think from the communities that care about it and I think that will make a fundamental difference as well.Jacinda Ardern: How will she know that the Children’s Action Plan is making a difference to child well-being when according to a report released today New Zealand is one of just six countries that do not collect enough data to fully measure how well our kids are doing?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I think what I got from that report as well is that what they are looking for is action and that is exactly what the Children’s Action Plan is. It has more than 32 responses to vulnerable children which cross from community responses right through to legislative changes that are needed so that we can ensure that joint chief executives are taking responsibility for these kids. I fundamentally believe that that will be the difference for them.Jacinda Ardern: Why does she not measure child poverty in the same range of ways that 29 other OECD nations already do?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Because while the Labour Party is worried about what those measures are we are getting on and actually doing something about it.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was a relatively straightforward question but I really do not think that she addressed—Mr SPEAKER: Order! It was a political question and it got a political answer back again. Question No. 9 Clare Curran.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I ask whether I could perhaps just for clarification on my point of order and for my future learning experience have it explained to me how that was a political question.Mr SPEAKER: I invite the member to go back and look at it—why not measure child poverty in the way other countries do etc. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have called Clare Curran—question No. 9.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: If the member is attempting to relitigate my decision as to the adequacy of that answer then I will take that very seriously.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I wish to ask you a serious question to gain some clarification. Is it out of order to cite a measurement for something and ask whether the Government is prepared to use its own statistics in the same way? Is that out of order or is that political?Mr SPEAKER: That is not out of order.