Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. It's a real pleasure to rise today to speak on this bill the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. I've reflected on the process that it has taken and it has been utterly enjoyable to work so collegially across this House in regards to this matter. I think this bill is one of those pieces of legislation that we all agree has fixed an issue—that there was potentially no reason why there was a difference. It's fixed an equity issue. So in that regard I'd like to acknowledge the Minister in charge Kelvin Davis for his completion of the process of carrying this bill through. I'd also like to acknowledge as others have the Hon Tracey Martin for her work. She also came and submitted to us which I thought was a really nice touch during the select committee process. She was there to just tautoko the ongoing work that was happening with our Government. So if she is watching today—as probably most people are out there!—I'd just like to mihi to her and acknowledge her work but also to my Minister for his completion of this work.This piece of legislation is part of an ongoing work programme in the Oranga Tamariki space. This work came out of a process where in 2019 there was a review into Oranga Tamariki and one of the findings was around this particular issue. So it has been a relatively quick journey through into becoming legislation I guess when you consider that this has been in place for many many years.I want to take the opportunity to thank our officials who were very gracious with their time and very useful in terms of some of the technical questions that we had. They were absolutely a delight to work with. So I'd like to acknowledge them as well. The entire select committee—we often work this way and most people out there in the community probably don't understand that select committees are really about the process of getting good legislation created. That's something that we hold dear and that's something that we've done very well here.To our submitters as well—those who came and told us their stories or the stories of the young people or clients that they worked with—we cannot make good legislation without their voice and so I want to acknowledge those submitters that came.And finally to the 15000 caregivers out there who are doing their very best who are often kin carers or whānau carers who are stepping up and taking care of our children where there has been some reason why their parents cannot do so I want to thank you most sincerely for the work that you've done. Having been a caregiver under the unsupported child's benefit regime I would just like to say that it is an honour and a pleasure to do that but it comes with some financial cost.I'm really delighted to be standing here. This bill is as I said about equity. It's done a couple of things—the first I'll talk about which is somewhat minor but probably not to those children to be fair. So we have as other members have said ensured that the birthday and what we have named holiday" allowance is able to be paid to the caregivers. It seems quite sensible that if a child under State care receives that support children under kin care or with family or friends should also receive this support. So we've put that in place.We've also created another category of caregiver and this is probably the biggest change. The caregiver is known as a "temporary caregiver". We had previously what was called the "12-month rule". The 12-month rule was around caring for a child you needed to be able to prove that you were going to care for the child for 12 or more months in order to access the support of the unsupported child's benefit. However what we know is that families don't come in simple and easy-to-manage packages. What we know is for example that what may be a temporary issue or temporary family situation may become a long-term situation. The permanent caregiver could have perhaps been incarcerated or become medically unwell or for some other reason is unable to care. The child then goes into the care of someone else and it was under this 12-month rule a requirement to prove that actually the child was going to stay with that family for those 12 months.We've done away with that on the basis that families are messier than that and it also meant that those families could step up knowing that they could get the support financially at a time when they were taking an additional child or children into their family. That's really important in terms of enabling and supporting our families to be able to do this. Because as we all know all children have a cost associated. Everyone needs to be fed. We need a bit of furniture for the kids—a bed; those kinds of things. So it's really important to make sure that in these circumstances which was happening in the process under State care if a child was in State care it can now also happen under the care of the unsupported child's benefit.So it is essentially a way for us to ensure that the hardship that our caregivers told us in the 2019 research—and who told us when they came to submit they were putting their hands into their own pockets and wanting to do that and not resenting that but it was costing a lot of money to be able to do this. Families were often going without in order to support these children and so this is part of the policy intent around the equity for these families and to ensure in fact that these families have that support.I also wanted to talk a little bit about a couple of the other issues—one that has been raised by the Hon Louise Upston—and that was the issue of the orphan's benefit. Look we've raised this and we raise it each time I think each of us gets up to speak. It doesn't sit comfortably with us that the term "orphan's benefit" applies to children who are not orphans. Nevertheless we weren't able to solve this issue. It's a relatively minor thing I guess but certainly it did not sit comfortably with us to have children whose parents are still living to be called orphans. And in fact "orphan" is quite an antiquated term. So we will leave that there and maybe if there's anyone out there listening who can come up with an alternative term because the great minds of Parliament were not able to do so I expect there will be some flooding of answers coming to us.The other very small but I guess really important change for the children born on a leap year is the creation of a specific birthday payment for those kids born on a leap year. So that will be 1 March and I think that that's a really thoughtful and useful thing so that those children are not missed out—so their payment goes ahead is paid in advance and is designated for 1 March. With that I have the great pleasure of commending this bill to the House. Thank you."