Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): I wish to welcome the introduction of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the vision it embodies for the future of New Zealand. I just want to refer to some of the comments made by the previous speaker Paula Bennett and remind the House that that previous speaker was once the Minister for Social Development and under her watch child poverty skyrocketed to 220000 children. Under her watch 220000 children were living in poverty. So when that member says This can't be as good as it gets." I have to sit here shaking my head at that member because we have to remind her that it was much much worse under her watch. At least we are aspirational for New Zealand. We actually have a strategy and a plan for addressing the very urgent issue of child poverty in this country unlike that Opposition who sat on their hands for nine years and did nothing to help those children—nothing member Louise Upston who's shaking her head.We are all devastated in this House at the sight of children without their lunch to see them throughout the day walking to school in the rain without a coat or living in cold damp houses. We are all devastated in this House by the number of children every winter that get admitted into our hospitals into our emergency wards with respiratory problems due to the conditions of the housing that they're living in. Not only do we rightly find it unacceptable that some of our children live in households that can't afford adequate food clothing secure housing dental and medical care and more; we don't recognise it as the New Zealand we have come to believe in. So many New Zealanders say that they do not recognise the country that they are living in.We see our country as somewhere that everybody gets a fair go where there is equal opportunity but we know that it's not always so and that children often bear the brunt of it. The reality is that there are families living lives of quiet desperation where losing a shift at work an unexpected bill or an illness can spell the difference between being able to feed your children or not. These families are often stressed strung out and ashamed of not being able to properly provide for their families and we've all had examples of that in our own electorates whilst we've been out and about as members of Parliament.I want to refer to one and that's an example that I used whilst in Opposition. The father in the family lost his job due to a workplace injury. Within a couple of weeks they could no longer afford to pay their rent. At that point they were evicted. They ended up—the mother the father and two children—living under a tarpaulin at the back of somebody's house and that was because they were on the brink of poverty that whole time. It only takes one bill—all of a sudden you've lost your job through no fault of your own and you are all of a sudden in that desperate situation.The experience of poverty in childhood goes much wider than the here and now. The impacts of persistent low income and material hardship are pervasive and cumulative and for some groups of people it's also inescapable. Evidence suggests that a substantial number do not move out of the low-income zone over a seven-year period. There may be other reasons why children don't thrive but childhood poverty is undoubtedly one that matters especially when the experience is severe and persistent and the working poor form part of this picture. While adults in employment in households reduces the chances of poverty for children it's not a cure at all and we know this is the case because around 40 percent of children living in poverty are living in households where there is at least one adult in full-time employment or self-employed.Child poverty rates after taking housing costs into account are much higher now than they were in the 1980s. Most low-income households with children are now no better off or even worse off than their counterparts in the 1980s. We also know that Māori and Pasifika children are overrepresented in poverty statistics. Just under half of children in poverty are Māori or Pasifika and rates of poverty and persistent poverty for Māori and Pasifika children are around double the rates of Pākehā and I certainly see that in my own electorate where we have a population of 24 percent Pacific 14 percent Māori and there is a higher number of children living in poverty more households with three or more families living in that one household and a higher proportion of sole-parent households. We see poverty in electorates like the one I am the MP for.So what's to be done? We all want answers but when people's lives are financially fragile and sometimes unstable or transient answers can be elusive. So what to do about children living in poverty is the question.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could I ask the member please to come to the bill.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I'm here to tell you that this bill forms a good deal of the answer. The legislation outlined in this bill will establish long-term targets to encourage Governments to have aspirational goals and to take actions that have both short-term and longer-term effects. At the same time it will ensure milestones are put in place that build over time. This is critical to ensuring momentum in the fight to better children's lives. In real terms that means putting goals in place that ensure a long-term sustained effort to address child poverty while taking action in the now to alleviate children's suffering. Each measure in the suite of measures is an important lens on the issue of child poverty. Setting them in primary legislation will help ensure that the actions of successive Governments can be better and more consistently judged. By setting goals for each of the four measures the Government will make progress on several fronts for New Zealand children and reaching and maintaining those long-term targets would place New Zealand alongside those countries who currently have the lowest rates of child poverty and material hardship. New Zealand has the opportunity and the moral obligation to ensure children are free from the burden of poverty. The Child Poverty Reduction Bill will drive a significant and sustained reduction in child poverty that lasts beyond successive Governments.Alongside this we have to look at other measures that we are putting in place to address the issue of child poverty in this country and this Government has been proactive on that front. The Families Package will mean an increase—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well that's very interesting to the member but a large part of the speech has not focused on the bill. So I ask the member please to keep it tight and focused on the bill.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Madam Deputy Speaker this bill will take this country a long way to addressing the very urgent issue of child poverty. I encourage all of the political parties in the House to do the right thing to support this legislation and to work with us to be able to adequately effectively address the issues of poverty that New Zealanders are facing."