Logie Jan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: General Debate[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10478. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): We all know that food shelter warmth rest safety and security are essential for children to develop. I believe that in this House we all want every child to be able to be a child and to be able to develop into their best self. Yet we all know that without those basic needs being met children suffer and it becomes pretty impossible for them to grasp the opportunities in life. Yet thousands of children in this country are suffering and missing out on those opportunities because benefit and paid work rates are too low and housing and power costs are too high. Otago University research has shown that more than one child a week dies of low income-related diseases because of those policy settings.I want to remind the House of this because talk of putting children first in the Child Youth and Family review does ring a little hollow when it is not happening in other areas across Government that could absolutely also save children’s lives. We have had multiple reports telling us that things within Child Youth and Family are in crisis and we have had those over a long time. Last year the Office of the Children’s Commissioner told us that there was the equivalent of a small city of children right now that he could not tell us were safer in care than they were in the homes that they were removed from. Since that report came out we have had experts talking and now we are looking at—5 years out—money being provided along the way being taken from existing services in the meantime to build a future model. In the meantime social workers who are children’s potential lifelines are feeling under attack and are still overwhelmed with too much paperwork and too many cases. And we still cannot say whether those children right now are safe. We need to look at the short-term safety of those children as well as our long-term goal of securing a better future for all children through whatever Government structure we eventuate with.The Government’s new proposal will create a central organisation that is accountable for all children within care. It will put we are told more money into support for foster carers and it will create a market for these services to ensure that children do not have to wait for them as they are now. The Minister for Social Development has likened this to ACC. She has repeated many times that children are having to wait for services from Government and she does not believe that they should have to. We do not believe that they should have to either yet there are waiting lists for ACC services and indeed in some areas even where the Minister lives there is an absolute dearth of ACC providers particularly for sensitive claims which is the most analogous area. On the East Cape on its website ACC has one counsellor listed for the entire East Cape—a population of over 43000 with high rates of abuse. So we know from the example of ACC that the market does not solve the problem of its own accord. We absolutely need State oversight and an investment in core Government services so that we are transparent and are accountable to the people because when we distance it out into relying on individual groups to come forward and businesses we lose some of that accountability and ability to be sure of the provision of services.And I do want to in the last minute talk briefly about some of the concerns for Māori. Sixty percent of children in care at the moment are Māori and I have heard from social workers who are deeply concerned that the changes at the moment—unless they absolutely focus on changing the model to a kaupapa Māori model—will result in another stolen generation. The phrase that was said to me was that this has the potential to simply legalise child trafficking and profiteering from it and for Māori it equates potentially to genocide. We have to watch this carefully to make sure that every child now and in the future is safe.