Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20437] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Yes I will stand up and take a call. I will stand up and take a call particularly on Child Youth and Family within Vote Social Development and particularly on vulnerable children. We have been hearing a bit more about vulnerable children of late which I personally think is a very good thing. I may not agree with everything that the Greens propose but I actually celebrate those members being part of putting children on the agenda for this campaign period when perhaps people’s interest is heightened and they want to take an interest in children where we are heading and what we are doing. 
I think any members of Parliament in this House being interested in what direction we take and what we do is really important. I will comment on the record so far in relation to what I have tried to tackle in terms of those who are abused neglected sexually abused and physically abused in terms of the increasing number of children suffering emotional abuse and in terms of managing how Child Youth and Family deals with them in the first instance. 
I had concerns about social work practice when National became the Government. At some levels I felt that we have such awesome social workers throughout this country but could the same high quality of service standard be guaranteed across the country in every office one goes to? I could not put my hand on my heart and say that it could be guaranteed. So it was really important to me that we looked at our own service. It was important in those links between police health non-governmental organisations and Child Youth and Family that when we found those children who had been hurt and neglected we made sure we had the right response that it was quick and that it incorporated not only families but also extended families and caregivers who were involved. 
When I first came into Government I was appalled at the re-abuse of children. We knew their names we knew where they lived and we knew who they were. As a New Zealander when I say “we” we had tried to care for them yet somehow they had been hurt again. I found that absolutely sickening and absolutely appalling. We did some stuff to really tighten up that with a multidisciplinary approach for any child that was hospitalised because of serious abuse. So we are not having just one person decide what happens to that child when he or she leaves hospital; there is a multidisciplinary approach combining police paediatricians Child Youth and Family some non-governmental organisations and everything else around the table and that has made a difference. So there are a number of things around that. 
I then wanted to look at teen houses and how we supported them better. Where do those teens who are really struggling and on the verge of losing their children go for parenting support and to have a roof over their heads? I am about to open the last of those supported teen houses next week I believe in Gisborne. I am absolutely thrilled by them. Teens can live there for 3 months 6 months and up to a year in some circumstances for some of them. I met a young woman the other day who had had her second baby. The first had been removed and we were very close to removing the second child to be quite honest through Child Youth and Family. But with her living there for a good 8 to 10 months there is a really good chance she will bond differently and actually keep that baby and I think that is kind of fantastic. 
I wish we could have more supported housing for teens; that is a goal of mine. I am not sure whether this is a time when Ministers should stand up and state their goals but I do have a goal that we see more supported housing for teens throughout New Zealand and that we support people quite differently. The ones I have seen have been run by Maori providers and others but I would like to see how we could perhaps do it differently in real partnership with iwi and help them—because supported housing is not cheap. 
I could list a whole long list of things that we did around vulnerable children and trying to get that practice to be better. Then it came to the next stage. The next stage is gnarly to be honest. The next stage affects middle New Zealand. The next stage has the potential to affect people who do not abuse and neglect their children because it could take funding away from them. It could mean that when we share information we share information about their children. It is one thing to say we want information shared on abused neglected and vulnerable children but it is quite another thing to say we might share information about people who would not normally come to the attention of any services. 
I want to talk about mandatory reporting. What does that mean? We saw some evidence of it overseas where there was a particularly heightened awareness of it in some offices and their reporting thresholds were a lot lower so they had to do much more reporting. Does that work and how do we cope with that as a workforce? Is it the right thing to do? Should we be taking resources away from other age groups and putting them into those who are really young? These are really complicated issues and New Zealand needs to debate them openly and in a way that involves people having their say in what the next big vital step is. I am proud of the green paper on children.