Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Speaker and like my colleague Andrew Bayly I do want to just put a few things on record. National is supporting the Child Support Amendment Bill in this second reading. But there were a number of issues that were raised in the select committee process that I think are worth just putting on the record. So while the intention obviously is to simplify the child support requirements and ensure a greater level of compliance with the requirements I want to just put on record that many of the submissions we heard actually talked about some of the issues more generally around the child support system and the interaction with or lack thereof between the Family Court. And for those submitters that raised issues some of them were particularly personal and challenging. I do want to say they were taken into consideration but were actually outside the scope of this piece of legislation and I want to put on record that we do think this is a further area of work. Unfortunately as noted by the National Council of Women of New Zealand there actually isn't a principle in this piece of legislation although it is the Child Support Amendment Bill that puts the interests of the child or the children at the heart of this legislation. It was raised by submitters and I do think there is further work that needs to occur.One of the areas that as an electorate MP unfortunately you deal with is the child being used as a weapon between warring parents. And part of what they use is the financial support of the child support legislation. That is a grossly unfair thing to do but is the reality often of what happens. And one of the areas that deeply concerns me is parental alienation. So I do think it is important that any consideration of the Child Support Act is about how you support parents how you ensure they comply with their requirements and how you ensure you capture all income—and I think this bill makes a significant improvement in that area because no one wants to see a parent who is liable hiding income that then really is a detriment to their own children.The part that I don't agree with is the compulsory collection of child support by an employer. What's currently in legislation is that if there is a default then there can be the compulsory collection from an employer through the payroll system and I think that strikes the right balance. So National disagrees with the fact that this is another area of tax collection for a business. But it's also important I think that it is a personal issue for an employee that has got nothing to do with their employer and the fact that they have to disclose it—something that I think is quite personal to them and their family I don't think is relevant at all. If someone is complying there should be zero need—zero need—for a business and employer to be privy to that information and part of the process.There still are a few areas that submitters raised where they saw that there were some areas that weren't fair. The challenge with the child support legislation is it will never be perfect. And the officials will attest to the fact that we challenged in a number of different ways to try and make it fairer but the reality is it's a significant improvement on what there is now but it isn't perfect. So constituent MPs if you're a new constituent MP in this House welcome to the world of child support scraps. Hopefully this legislation will mean there are fewer of them because it is a complicated system and for a family that is going through the process of separating the large bulk of them want to comply. So making a system that's easier for them to comply I think is really important and useful. Removing some of the penalties I think is also important.I've been reassured by the discussions by Inland Revenue that there is more work going on at the front line to communicate and educate newly liable parents as well as new receiving parents about how the system works and I think that's a really positive step. I won't clearly name names but I think of one particular constituent who came into my office literally with a stack of unopened letters from Inland Revenue that were only about child support and every time they saw an envelope they freaked out. It was so incredibly stressful. They just didn't have the ability to comprehend how it all worked and when they opened the first letter and the second letter and they were trying to read the summary they got more and more bamboozled and I don't want to see any parent—because the impact of that will highly likely have an impact on their relationship with their child and that's definitely not what we want to see with the child support system.We do want to make sure it's enforceable and reflects modern families. As everybody in this House knows modern families come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and we need to have a child support system that reflects that is easy for people to comply with and is in the best interests in my view of the children that should be at the heart of any legislation that has child in its title. Thanks Madam Speaker.