Lotu-Iiga Sam: Child Support Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Child Support Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9159. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie): I think that not only this Parliament but certainly the people of New Zealand have heard enough from the past leader of the Labour Party and certainly that sounded like a leadership speech if I have ever heard one Mr Cunliffe. It is a pleasure to actually speak on this the third reading of the Child Support Amendment Bill. As the chair of the Social Services Committee that considered this bill I want to take the opportunity to thank the Minister of Revenue—he talked about the long road of discovery for him in getting to this bill—the Hon Peter Dunne. I want to thank him for his constructive assistance as our committee deliberated on this bill. I also want to thank the many officials the committee staff the clerks and also fellow committee members who considered this bill. I do not want to thank Mr Cunliffe because he neither sat in on any of the submissions nor was part of the deliberations on this bill.Mr Cunliffe talked about an old principle of jurisprudence. What was that old principle of jurisprudence? He said it was to take his marching orders from the United Nations. Well we on this side of the House will not take our directions from Ms Clark in New York and from the United Nations. He might take those instructions but we will not—oh!Hon David Cunliffe: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Points of order will be heard in silence.Hon David Cunliffe: Two points. One is that it is a longstanding Standing Order that it is inappropriate to suggest that members are taking orders from any personage or interest outside this House. Secondly it feeds into the broader issue of misrepresentation under the Standing Orders.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: The first point is upheld. Members cannot be accused of taking instruction from outside this House and that is clearly set out in Speakers’ rulings. The second point—well members I just ask for a little bit more courteousness across the House.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Thank you. He did mention the United Nations convention. I added one plus one to equal two and I thought he was referring to his former boss. But anyway coming back to why this bill is important the child support system—Hon David Cunliffe: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Some members when they have been corrected by your wise judgment have the generosity and maturity to withdraw and apologise; others repeat the same but in different language. You may wish to decide which of those cases applies here.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: When a point of order has been dealt with members should move on and not even refer to the point of order.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: As I said it is was and always has been a backstop for families when parents are no longer living together and cannot support themselves for an arrangement to be made for the support of their children. It is not about the United Nations. It is not about external parties. It is about what is going on in this country and between kids who clearly need support.Child support was never intended as the Minister said to be the automatic default position and nor should it be that. My strong preference in these arrangements is that when relationships sadly do break up parents should be encouraged to make those arrangements in a private way for the maintenance of their children. And I equally recognise that that is not always going to be fair or feasible in a number of these cases. So it is therefore the aim of this system to ensure financial support is reasonable andreached on a voluntary basis. To do this efficiently and accurately in today’s context it is important that the scheme be updated.Like many in this House I have had several of my constituents contact me about the inequity and the unfairness of the current system. They come to me in my electorate office—and the previous speaker will not know because he neither lives in his electorate nor knows where his electorate office is in New Lynn—and I say that in terms of doing this efficiently child support payments should take into account a greater range of individual circumstances and capacities of both parents which is more in line with modern practice. So it is important as I said that the formula be altered to reflect current modern practices as happens between couples in relationships. In the context of child support it means that child support payments are collected and delivered for the benefit of those children whom they are intended for and parents should not pass those financial responsibilities to maintain their children on to other members of society as the previous member seemed to suggest.We know that there are 210000 children in families who are currently involved in the system. We know that the system is outdated. We know that there are current issues within the system. This new system though will not solve each problem; the Minister has clearly clearly represented that and he stated it up front. But we all know as well and the previous member knows himself that this system is better than the last system.I just want to say that I support this bill. It obviously has a new formula which bases child support payments on a wider recognition of shared care the income of both parents as well as an estimated average expenditure for raising children in New Zealand. Again the previous member Mr Cunliffe said he did not know how we came to the formula. Well I suggest he reads the bill first that he turns up to select committee hearings when submitters turn up and that he actually listens to some of his colleagues who might have an idea about what is going on in this bill. So what happens is people get behind in their payments. He suggested that the debt has exploded. We acknowledge that. We saw that in the Finance and Expenditure Committee. We saw that people are dropping out of the system and not making their payments. But the changes in this bill are about encouraging and facilitating parents to make more timely payments of child support and that is why I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.