Bennett Paula: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett Paula: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3614. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 I just want to take a call on Part 3. The previous speaker Jacinda Ardern has identified some of the clauses to this part. Ultimately what we are doing is lowering the age of the youngest dependent child from 6 years to 5 years for DPB sole parent recipients and partners of beneficiaries so that they are available and can be looking for part-time work at least. Lowering the age of the youngest dependent child from 18 years to 14 years for the commencement of full-time work availability is quite new. 
Obviously we have had a part-time work test for those whose youngest child is 6 years and we are moving that to 5 years which quite frankly still puts us at the lower end of the OECD as far as work testing for DPB mums. But the full-time work test for those whose youngest child is 14 years is very new. It has been 18 years for ever which has meant that before National was in Government last time there was actually no work test at all for DPB mums until their youngest child was 18 years old. We have now moved that part-time work test to when their youngest child is 5 years but a full-time work test at 14 years. 
What we occasionally hear from others and from the Opposition on this particular policy is that it is unfair that parents cannot do it there is no possibility of finding work and what will happen to their children. When looking at some of the facts it is quite interesting that for those whose youngest child is 14 years - plus actually 68 percent of sole mothers currently work—68 percent—and 83 percent are partnered. The proof is kind of there that they can do it. It does not mean that there is always the right job available hence that kind of suitability around work. But to say that it is not possible to find work is simply not true. 
What we have done is made sure we have put some clauses in the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill that accept that those who are coming on benefit in particular because of domestic violence incidents or because of a death or because of something that has been quite traumatic are given due time to work their way through some of that. It is not an instant work test even if their youngest child is over 5 years for part-time work or their youngest child is 14 years - plus. We have taken some advice on that. There is a level of discretion around it in particular. The other reality around it when we really looked at it is that there are just so many individual circumstances. What Work and Income case managers in particular want more than anything is something that is very clear and very plain and very straightforward. We are giving them that but we are also giving a degree of discretion and flexibility around it recognising people’s different circumstances. 
To the member’s call around the insertion of a Supplementary Order Paper that covers quality childcare to say at the least that I find it kind of sanctimonious and ridiculous would be an understatement. The reality is that the early education and childcare legislation actually already has defined what quality childcare is. We have regulations around that and we subsidise only to that. For parents not to have an actual say in what is childcare and what is suitable for their own children because we feel it needs over-regulation which is what we saw for so long is actually what is half the problem with the cost blowout in the sector itself. The reality is that parents are very good at making informal and formal arrangements themselves. In fact I challenge a mum or a dad in this House who has not actually had an arrangement of some description with their friends or parents where they said “I’ll pick up yours”—