Wall Louisa: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wall Louisa: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3848. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 E nga mana e nga reo e rau rangatira ma tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. For many of you listening at home you might be wondering what need this Families Commission Amendment Bill is addressing. What need is this bill addressing? Well actually I can tell you that the need was in the confidence and supply agreement that National and United Future came up with. If you look at the actual quote from this coalition agreement: “The Families Commission will have two broad functions—the existing functions will be headed by a single Commissioner” we should note that the position of that single commissioner Carl Davidson is very interesting particularly on paid parental leave given he is supposed to represent an organisation that is representing New Zealand families. The research is unqualified in its support for paid parental leave. We know that parents being able to stay home with their children not only benefits children but also actually benefits communities. It is at the heart of community and family resilience which was actually one of the two primary roles of the Families Commission and my colleague Dr Rajen Prasad will know this well because he was the original Chief Families Commissioner. 
The commission was empowered to identify and have regard to factors that help to maintain or enhance families’ resilience and families’ strengths so I find it incredible that we are discussing the change to a bill that will actually change the function of this institution which has always been about being a voice for our families. It is going to change from becoming an autonomous Crown entity to basically a Crown agent. It will have to have give effect to Crown policy and in fact it says in the documentation in the bill that this bill adds these functions to assist in determining or achieving the Government’s priorities in the social sector to commission research on behalf of the Government and others and to manage contracts for research in the social sector on behalf of the Government. 
I note the whole intention of the Families Commission in the early days and I want to highlight one of the original commissioners a woman called Carolynn Bull who was a member of the Maori Women’s Welfare League and represented Otautahi very well. She was very staunch in promoting not only to me but also to many people The Couch. For people who do not know what The Couch was within the Families Commission it was actually a formal mechanism for families and people who were interested in issues related to families to have a formal say in what the needs and interests of our communities were. The Couch was set up to promote the interests of all families and promote a better understanding of family issues and needs amongst Government agencies and the wider community. That is the issue with this change in orientation—interesting word—of the Families Commission. What it is going to become is a Government voice. We do not need Government voices advocating for families. Actually what we need is family voices advocating for families. 
What the Government has done by reorienting this bill is justify why Labour when we are in Government will not have a Families Commission. We will get rid of the Families Commission and create a ministry for children. We will have a Minister for children who will advocate and speak on behalf of New Zealand families and New Zealand children which is completely opposite to what these changes propose to do. So we in this first reading will let New Zealanders have a say and we will support this bill’s referral at first reading to the Social Services Committee. But people out there must know that we will be ensuring that your voices are captured in this debate because the orientation of this new bill is going to ensure that New Zealand families do not have a say. The needs and interests of New Zealand children are not a priority for that Government and we know this because child poverty is growing in this country. A bill that relates to paid parental leave should be something that the Families Commissioner is the champion of. That is not what is happening and this bill will ensure that it does not. Kia ora.