Prasad Rajen: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Prasad Rajen: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3836. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
Tuatahi e ngawhanauwhanui o te motu ka nui te mihi ki a koutou no reira tena koutou tena koutou tenara koutou katoa. Kia ora Mr Speaker. 
[ 
Firstly to the families at large of the nation a huge acknowledgment to you collectively so greetings greetings and greetings indeed. Thank you Mr Speaker. 
] 
Labour will support the Families Commission Amendment Bill going to the Social Services Committee. Labour certainly is committed to families and believes that families are the foundation of our society and that family well-being is critical to the development of our children and to other members of our families and communities. However it is important to note that National has never been a strong supporter of the Families Commission and it was only going to be a matter of time before it began to restructure the commission in this way. Judith Collins certainly regularly attacked the commission in Opposition as did the Minister for Social Development. 
Of course this restructuring that the Minister has talked about is not starting with this bill. It has actually been going on for some time: the types of appointments that have been made to the commission the transfer of funds from the commission to other entities and “shaping” the work of the commission—so much so that in recent times even the current chief commissioner has resiled from probably one of the best pieces of work that the commission has done on paid parental leave because he took the particular political line that the country could not afford it. That demonstrates the way in which the commission has in a sense been prevailed upon by this Government and by this Minister. 
The Families Commission is an autonomous Crown entity and that means something. It has to work at arm’s length from the Government. The amendments to the Families Commission in this bill actually from our perspective begin to seriously circumscribe the role of the commission. It is beginning to look a lot more like a Government department or a Government ministry. We make those comments with some thought. 
 The commission will have a new evaluation and monitoring role for the social sector. The Minister has just now explained what her vision is as to how that might operate. I guess if we are setting up a unit within an autonomous Crown entity to have a monitoring evaluation and research function in that particular way it is really difficult to see where it might end up. In new section 8A in clause 7 we get a more detailed statement on how the Government sees the commission operating. With its additional functions here it appears to us that the commission will do the Minister’s bidding. Under the Crown Entities Act which applies to the Families Commission currently the Government can direct the commission only to have regard to Government policies. But when we look at new section 8A the commission actually becomes an arm of government and is required to do a whole bunch of stuff for the Government. New section 8A says that the additional functions including evaluation are “to commission research in the social sector on behalf of the Government”. Why is the Government not doing its own research? This is an independent commission set up to work in a particular way and to manage contracts. Now the commission this particular unit within the commission will be managing the contracts in the social sector on behalf of the Government. Those are just two of the provisions of that particular clause. The commission will now undertake research on behalf of the Government and will manage contracts. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: This is a front-bench bid Rajen—bidding for the front bench. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Has the member from Tauranga read this bill? Does he know anything about this particular bill or is he still bored with his own portfolio? Mr Bridges listen—you might learn something. 
The commission through these kinds of provisions is being developed into not a Crown entity but an arm of government and therefore a department or ministry. We have to ask and we will ask in the select committee whether this should remain a commission. That is an important question. If it is circumscribed in this way and is being directed by the Minister to this extent then why is it a commission? Autonomous Crown entities are supposed to go and do the work on contemporary issues themselves. The commission should do its work and then put the evidence of that where it lies. That is the work of an independent body. 
The Ministry of Social Development has a multimillion-dollar Centre for Social Research and Evaluation. It is the activities from there that are being transferred to the Families Commission. They actually belong to that particular unit. Here is a multimillion-dollar centre—tens of millions of dollars have been spent there—but this function is to be transferred to the Families Commission which has about $3 million to do that with. One can see the sincerity of that particular approach and we have major questions. 
The other change is the change to the advocacy function of the commission. This is the strength of the commission—to go and examine topics to do the work and to bring it back. In addition to all of that clause 6 requires the commission to prepare an annual Family Status Report. That is a large piece of work and quite a lot of resources will be gobbled up by that particular role. What kind of report will be produced? The Hon Peter Dunne says he has seen the English example and that the English example is one he wants to emulate. I have the English examples here both the first and second reports:  
The State of the Nation Report: Fractured Families 
 and the second one which is recommendations  
Policy Recommendations to the Conservative Party 
. Larry Baldock will be very pleased with the approach taken in the state of the families report. 
So what is being done here? At the select committee we will want to know what is the scope of that particular report and what kinds of things are required. That might give us a bit more of a steer as to what the Minister or the commission has in mind. Again the expertise for that kind of work lies in the Ministry of Social Development. The ministry produces the  
Social Report 
 and it takes a lot of resources to produce that. This is a kind of social report on families. Why are those two things not being linked and the largest department that has the greatest amount of resources doing that work? No it is being transferred into something that is an independent commission. Here we have the role of Government departments being transferred on to an autonomous Crown entity—the Families Commission—and we have to ask why because that really is saying that we do not need a Families Commission. If that is what the Minister is saying would it not be honest to actually come out with that? 
Then there is this notion—the Government’s arrangements with the commission are also being changed. There will be one Families Commissioner. There will be a board and there will be one Families Commissioner. The role of the Families Commissioner is not defined. In fact it is left to the board. Currently other— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: We’ll put you on it if you sit down. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: I have been there Mr Bridges. I know a lot more about it than you or all of your members put together which is why I am talking carefully and with some experience on the bill. That member is so bored with this. If you do not know something about something Mr Bridges do not go there. 
Indeed this is a problem. Can the Minister not describe what the role of the commissioner in the Families Commission is? That person will not necessarily be the chair of the board. They will be with the transition but not necessarily as members will describe. 
In addition to that there is also a review panel. Here is the Minister telling a research institution how to do its work. The Minister has good grounds to ask for peer review. That then opens up for the commission; it is doing that work now. Any expert in New Zealand or internationally is used by the Families Commission for peer reviews. But here we are putting this panel right in there. I think it is interference and I think it is designed to hold and control the commission so it does not get lost anywhere does not do the kinds of things it might do and does not criticise Government policies. Well if that is what the Government’s agenda is then we will ask—and we will keep on asking—why we have a Families Commission because what this bill does is make it look more and more like a Government department. It makes it look more and more like a ministry and many of its functions are already today in ministries with far greater resources. Significant roles are being transferred from there on to a commission. It looks like the commission accepts those but we will want to question it as to how it is going to fulfil these roles with the rather limited amount of resources it currently has and how it is going to address the real advocacy functions that indeed are the cornerstone for this particular commission. We have serious concerns. We will ask them but that will happen at the select committee. Thank you.