Foster-Bell Paul: Care of Children Law Reform Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Care of Children Law Reform Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14244. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): I am glad to be able to speak in this first reading of the Care of Children Law Reform Bill. I understand that the intention of this bill as expressed in its purpose is in fact to enable an evidence-based modernisation of the law as it relates to the care of children in New Zealand—specifically around the adoption of children.As members speaking before me have noted adoption law reform is on the Government’s legislative agenda but there is much more pressing work that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency in this country. We on this side understand that and are well aware of the issues raised by this bill. Although at a practical level the adoption system in New Zealand by and large works fairly well despite being rather outdated—and this applies whether these are adoptions from birth or later in life due to the orphaning of a child or other circumstances—this is not to say that there are not improvements that could be made but there are other pressing priorities that we are focusing on.Adoption is not a new thing. I am sure our learned Attorney-General will be aware of this example: 1900 years ago a non-patrician soldier born in Spain by the name of MarcusUlpiusTraianus became by adoption the EmperorTrajan Caesar of the Roman Empire.Trajan later went on to be considered one of the best Roman emperors a virtuous pagan as Edward Gibbon characterised him. It is unfortunate that at some points in our history there has been a certain stigma around adoption and discrimination against adoptees—for instance in the right to inherit—but I am encouraged by the fact that this has largely abated with the majority of adoptions in New Zealand now being open ones.Speaking from our own family experience in a situation whereby my brother had a daughter at a very young age my parents raised my niece their granddaughter in what some might call a whāngai arrangement—not a formal adoption but an open familial-based adoption—which the previous speakerLe’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylorreferred to. These systems and approaches are working in New Zealand. There is not an urgent or a pressing crisis here that needs to be addressed although there are obviously some areas where there could be some improvement.People adopt among other reasons because they want to create a family or take into the care of their family a child who has been neglected abandoned by its parents or orphaned. New Zealand has some of the easiest most straightforward and least stressful adoption procedures in the world when you are looking at other countries that operate adoption systems. I acknowledge that this bill has the best interests of children at its core. However it currently contains no workable provisions. It is impracticable. It would require a large amount of dedicated resource to make operable any of its suggestions.Even though National does not support this bill I would like to highlight some of the initiatives that this Government is taking that do significantly improve the lives of the most vulnerable children. Since National came into office in 2008 we have increased spending on early childhood education by 75 percent. At the end of the last financial year we celebrated the fact that almost 96 percent of children starting school had previously participated in some form of early childhood education.Under this Government we have also seen large increases in the number of 8-month-olds being fully immunised from diseases such as whooping cough and hepatitis B including some outstanding results among Māori and Pasifika communities which have previously and traditionally lagged behind their peers in immunisation rates. Again in the health sector we have seen a reduction in rheumatic fever rates in young children. More than 47000 schoolchildren have joined the Government’s programme to reduce rheumatic fever and we now have 211 schools and nine community-based clinics taking part in this with 146 new schools joining in the last 12 months.Perhaps one of the most significant measures National has taken to reduce the plight of vulnerable children was to introduce the Vulnerable Children Bill. There is not one member in this House who does not want to give every child a better start in life. In New Zealand there are far too many children who have been the victims of physical or psychological abuse and quite frankly New Zealanders have had enough. So I believe that it is quite right that these sorts of measures which address the real pressing and urgent issues ahead of changes to adoption rules—which although outdated affect a far smaller group of children than these major problem areas—are prioritised.As part of National’s Children’s Action Plan we have already expanded social workers in schools and hospitals increased funding and services for children in care and introduced children’s teams to work with at-risk children. I also welcome the member’s bill that was introduced by Tracey Martin—let us face it a far more carefully worked out member’s bill—that addresses some issues around clothing for orphans and kin carers.As I have previously said we are here to support the most vulnerable children in society. The Government is attending to this pressing business. I hope there will be more practical and more carefully considered legislation in this area brought forward in the future.Dr Rajen Prasad: Mr Speaker—Hon Christopher Finlayson: Oh dear! This’ll be sanctimonious.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): I call—Dr Rajen Prasad: That sanctimonious—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! [Interruption] Order! I have not called anybody yet. Calm down guys. Calm down. [Interruption] Order! I am on my feet. Right.Dr Rajen Prasad: Mr Speaker—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): I call the honourable member Dr Rajen Prasad.