Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Thank you for letting me take a call. I rise in support of the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. I do want to acknowledge my colleague Karen Chhour who was on our select committee and so thank you for your kōrero tonight. For many of us this is personal and for you to share your story—and this is personal—we thank you for being open during the select committee process but also in the House as we've gone through the reading stages. We have to realise as we talk about topics and issues and challenges within our communities that many of these things are personal for us and I rise to support—as we've said already tonight to tautoko all the people who are involved in caring for young people for children who are not their own.Tonight I just want to focus on three particular things: I want to talk about the problem and why we're here in this third reading stage; I want to talk a bit about the process how we've got to where we've got to; and then finally I want to finish off by talking about the people—the people that this affects the people who have been on this journey and as we've said our young people.So the problem—we've heard and we've talked about right through from the first reading until now in the House tonight—is around this inequity this disparity for children who aren't in State care for children outside the State system. That is a problem and that is something that I have negotiated myself as a caregiver and I've had to grapple with over the years and I'll allude to that a little bit later. The other problem within this was extending the eligibility for those on the orphan's benefit for those on the unsupported child's benefit for caregivers who look after that child for less than a year less than 12 months and the challenges that that imposes when you're having to take in somebody who may not be your own child and the challenges financially that brings.Next is the leap year which was mentioned the problem of just getting that right which is obviously a really simple fix. We've done that for 1 March which will always be when that payment is made. And of course the holiday payments and the birthday payments which we have talked about and the problem obviously being the State system is a little bit different to those who were caring for young people for tamariki outside of the State system.So for me the process that we've followed we go right back as the Hon Kelvin Davis said earlier we go right back to Tracey Martin back in 2019 who began this journey to ensure that this piece of legislation was passed to ensure that caregivers are paid a fair and equitable amount. So we thank you Tracey Martin for championing this we thank you for coming to our select committee to speak on this. I also thank the Hon Kelvin Davis for picking it up for running with it and now for us to be about to pass this piece of legislation into law. Throughout that process the stages of the House: the first reading the committee stages and second readings and committees and now on to the third reading. I want to thank those who submitted in the select committee stage: 31 submissions eight oral submissions who all spoke in favour of why this needs to be changed.I just thought really briefly tonight I might just bring up a couple of comments that were made because it's really appropriate in terms of why we're here and why this needs to be changed. This was from Birthright New Zealand who said that We strongly believe that every child has the right to an equal start in life. This bill is another step to ensure that every child has that start." We ought to then move across to grandparents raising grandchildren which is a phenomenal responsibility and as wonderful as it is that the grandparents are there caring for their grandchildren there's more and more doing it and we want to ensure that they are looked after. They talked about the many many years that grandparents raising grandchildren have been strong advocates for change of the process for the bill feeling an inequality when it comes to the orphan's benefit and the unsupported child's benefit. They want to see this change. Then finally it was from YouthLaw Aotearoa and they had a case study of a person that took on a family member a relative. The unfortunate thing was because it was only for a few months because the parent was struggling they took them and it was over Christmas time. They weren't complaining because they were there; they were whānau they were there to look after their family member but they were unable to receive any support because it was less than a year. So to be able to change that tonight is really significant for all those caregivers out there. I want to thank the officials who worked with us and finally the people. I want to thank our tamariki our rangatahi that have to live away from their birth parents their parents who were meant to look after them but for whatever reason they haven't been able to. One of the submitters and I brought it up in the second reading and I want to remind us of it they said that the care of tamariki the care of our rangatahi—this is everybody's business. This isn't just up to the State this isn't just up to a family; this is up to all of us to ensure that our young people grow to flourish. So I want to again thank those caregivers who have stood up who step up day after day night after night week after week year after year decade after decade to care for someone who wasn't born to them—but I know in many many cases that they love them like their own. That's my story as a caregiver and I'm still in a relationship with many young people I cared for who are now having their own kids. I'm happy to be part of that process and be part of raising let's not say grandchildren but younger people who are growing up. It makes me feel old. But I also want to close with a couple of stories. There was a young person I mentioned in the second reading who came to me because his mum was unable to care for him and he was on the unsupported child's benefit which actually was a real challenge for us to obtain and hopefully this will make it a simpler system. But just last week his little sister celebrated her birthday. It was really cool. But unfortunately the whānau situation still is a struggle. This young—well he's a young man now who was in my care who was on unsupported child benefit now has his little sister living with him. He's now receiving the unsupported child's benefit for the care of his little sister and as much as it would have been cool if she and he could live with their mum it just isn't appropriate and it just isn't possible. But there's love there's care there's whānau within that little home. I'm really grateful to our Government I'm really grateful that we can ensure that he can look after his sister. His sister can be looked after his sister can receive the holiday payment can receive a birthday payment can ensure that the benefit that they receive is equal to that of a child in the State care system.So I probably haven't got much longer to go to tell any other stories but just to say that this is personal that people's lives are affected that the process of going through this piece of legislation makes a real difference. Every week when I'm back in the electorate I often have that question: "Do you feel like you're making a difference? Do you feel like you're doing anything? Do you feel like you're making a change?" And of course every time I say "Yes of course. I just did this this this and this this week—most of the time." But tonight it's very much around "Yes I am making a difference. Yes we are making a difference in this House for our tamariki for our rangatahi for those who care for them." So thank you to the Hon Kelvin Davis thank you to the Hon Tracey Martin thank you to our Social Services and Community Committee colleagues and for this being a collegial process. It was constructive it was not robust at all because we did not need to be robust because we were on the same page in terms of ensuring that equity wins on the night and ensuring that young people that children are well cared for. On that basis it's with great pleasure that I commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call. I call Harete Hipango."