Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm pleased to take a call on this piece of legislation a member's bill in the name of my colleague Hamish Walker. I think one of the important roles that we have as parliamentarians is to make sure those New Zealanders that perhaps don't have a voice have a voice in this place and so I'm particularly proud of my colleague for raising an issue that affects some of the most precious children in this country who are under our foster care programme. We know from a lot of the work that the Hon Anne Tolley did when she was Minister for Children the sorts of long-term life outcomes that children in foster care often have compared to other New Zealand children. So this is one issue that very practically Hamish Walker has brought to the House with an intention of addressing and redressing the challenges of children in foster care.I do have to say that while I accept on behalf of my colleague it was a challenging process and in terms of a policy perspective the committee didn't land where we wanted it to there are still opportunities as the bill progresses through the House to close some of that gap. I do want to put on record my thanks to other members of the select committee the Social Services and Community Committee for working very constructively with Hamish Walker who's the member in charge of this bill. The issues were particularly complex and the officials I thought given we had officials from a number of departments—from the Inland Revenue Department and Oranga Tamariki—really took this in their grasp with the intention of forwarding it. But I do want to put on record that it didn't go as far as National members wanted it to go. It hasn't delivered the full policy intent but it is definitely a step further than if there'd been no bill in the first place.So the problem it was trying to solve is that when there are foster parents who are looking after foster children they want to give those children every opportunity and one of the opportunities is to open a KiwiSaver account and secure their financial future. It was somewhat frustrating that actually for those who are not legal guardians—they are foster parents; they don't have the same level of rights and responsibilities over those children in their care. I think one of the advantages in bringing this issue to the House is the recognition that passing legislation is one way of solving a problem. The other way is actually looking at the processes and policies that exist within Government departments and in this case inside Oranga Tamariki. I don't think to be fair they had realised the size of the problem or actually the level of angst that it created for foster parents and the children in their care.That's why I do want to acknowledge that the officials working with the select committee gave an undertaking to improve some of the existing processes within Oranga Tamariki to make it easier for those who were applying when the CEO—the alternative is the CEO of Oranga Tamariki can apply to open a KiwiSaver account for a foster child. I am convinced that one of the immediate results of Hamish Walker drafting this member's bill getting it pulled from the ballot and having it successfully pass the first reading and going through the committee stage means that there will be more foster children through the authority of the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki—when the requests are made through the social workers it will be a greater priority than it had been before. It's not a criticism of the work Oranga Tamariki do—I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm just saying this is a great opportunity now that a very real issue has been raised by a member of Parliament—in this case Hamish Walker—who by bringing a bill to this House means we get to fix the problem for some of the children in foster care in New Zealand.As I said there's more work to be done and that was clearly indicated in the National members' minority view because the original intent of the legislation won't be achieved with the changes that were made. The intention was to look at the 6000 foster children that are not formally under legal guardianship arrangements. This forwards it for 500 children. I think there will be more that don't fit inside the rules that the chief executive has the authority over so I do think the number will increase. But the bill was always intended from a policy perspective to provide a pathway for those foster parents to enrol a child in their care and it's fair as a committee we didn't progress far enough down that track. I do hope that the foster parents who were the constituents that Hamish Walker was representing when this bill was drafted—I do hope that they personally can see that bringing this issue to their local MP means that a large number of foster children will be better off and will be able to be enrolled in a KiwiSaver plan that they wouldn't otherwise have been able to.So we do see that there are opportunities for change. We were pleased that Oranga Tamariki as I said before planned to improve their internal systems and communications to make it easier for a caregiver to go through the process of the chief executive getting that approval and therefore getting a KiwiSaver account. We know that there are providers—for example Simplicity who have said that they would waive all their fees for the first five years for a child in foster care which is incredibly generous and a very practical way that an organisation can support some of New Zealand's most vulnerable children.So I'm thrilled to support this in the second reading and I want to really acknowledge Hamish Walker for bringing forward a very real issue. I think sometimes there's a view that unless the issue you know affects tens of thousands of New Zealanders it shouldn't be afforded the time of the House. I totally disagree—I totally disagree. There are vulnerable New Zealanders who deserve a voice in this place and it is totally and absolutely the job of the local MP to bring that voice to Parliament. To have a member's bill drafted and pulled from the ballot is an incredible responsibility and a privilege and I know that foster children up and down New Zealand will benefit from this work. Thank you.