Lotu-Iiga Sam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 16 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5801. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
5. 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: What children will the White Paper for Vulnerable Children be targeting? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 I am sorry Mr Speaker. I was a little focused on being called a liar by the member over there. Right this paper is focused on this country’s most vulnerable children: those who have been and are at most risk of being seriously maltreated. This paper does not undermine the importance of ensuring universal support to children but unless we put a clear focus on these most vulnerable children things will not change for them. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What have the trends— 
Grant Robertson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister for Social Development just made a very unparliamentary remark across the House and I ask that she withdraw and apologise for it. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I actually heard what the Minister said. I do not want to repeat what she said but she did not actually accuse anyone of lying. She made a comment a quote from past time that is probably even on the record of this Parliament already and I am not about to rule those words out. But members should not—[ 
Interruption 
] Order! Members should not take that as a being a precedent to call other members liars. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! Before I call the member I ask the House just to settle down a little because members may recollect that the thing that caused the Minister to get a little offended in the previous question was that she perceived she had been accused across the House of exactly that. That is why I just ask the House to come back to a little more order. I know it has been a tense time. I understand that; I respect that. It is the House’s right to be tense at times and to take issues very seriously. That is absolutely the prerogative of the House but I think it is time now for a little more reasonableness. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What have the trends in child abuse and neglect been since 2004? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Notifications have increased considerably and continue to do so. Those notifications that require further action have also continued to increase. For as much as it can actually that is good news. It means that people are actually reporting and we are able to do something about it. It means that we are following up with those children who are potentially being maltreated. However Child Youth and Family has reported a 4 percent drop in substantiated findings and that is the first time we have seen a decrease since 2004. 
Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor 
: How can the public have confidence that information stored in the proposed vulnerable children information system will be secure given the recent security breaches by other departments such as Work and Income ACC and the Inland Revenue Department? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: For a number of reasons. One is the time it will take to build it. The second reason I would give the member is that actually the mistakes that have happened and that have come out most recently will certainly be putting a spotlight on this and the pressure to get it absolutely 100 percent correct is well and truly on me. I know that and I will be following it with every level of detail. The other thing is that we will be getting expert advice from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and we have asked some of those with ethics backgrounds to be involved in it as well. So we will work our way through quite a systematic process to make sure we get it right. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What other initiatives in the white paper will make a difference for our most vulnerable children? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Particularly around those children who are currently in the care of the chief executive and are currently or have been quite seriously abused and neglected there are a range of initiatives that we are going to do for them—for example expand the number of specialist-trained caregivers for high-needs and high-risk teenagers; review the paid parental leave provisions to ensure that the provisions applying to adoptive parents and those taking foster children in also work for families who give children a home for life; and extend parent-child interaction therapy which is being trialled in Child Youth and Family and is proving to be very successful particularly in dealing with those children with high and complex needs.