White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): I rise in support of the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill and it's been a pleasure to sit in the House and to hear so many people actually who are obviously touched in their personal lives by their situations. It has led to a consensus and I think that's something we should be really grateful for.I wanted to hear from Karen Chhour and although I enjoyed listening to Simon Court I wanted to recognise in particular that she has been through her own story. She gave it in her maiden speech about being in a situation where her grandmother wanted her and she didn't get to keep her and she was in a very stressful situation as a result. I know she would have taken a keen interest. What I got from her maiden speech was that she had lost a lot of faith in the State over that experience and that time. I am very proud of the Labour Party for hopefully restoring some of that by coming up with a bill which actually gives people support and recognises and respects those doing that role. It's a very very important role and I don't underestimate the difficulty of it.One of the difficulties of it is often the temporary situation because as Simon Court pointed out we have a situation where often it is those families that are breaking down because of the distress they face. Often it will be something like a disability or it will be mental breakdown etc. I've had that in my own family when I had one evening just before Christmas the arrival of my brother's wife's grandchild. He came out with them from England. I had this little boy whose mother had basically broken down in my house and what actually gave him stability was the love and support of his uncle—my brother—and his wife who had been there all the way through. I can see that my sister-in-law who was much older and so was the grandmother was at a point in her life where it wasn't necessarily possible for her to provide that kind of financial support. And I am very glad that in New Zealand we are now doing that for grandparents—not dependent on circumstances in that way that we have made this equal and that we have recognised that at that time it might well be something where we need to provide a lot more support and security. I'm thrilled to see this. It is a very sad fact that we have 24000 children in this position. But I think that this sends a very clear message to the people who are doing that work that very very difficult work quite often because often they're dealing with someone who is actually very damaged and is traumatised and they're getting that kind of support. I just want to actually reflect on the speech of my friend Glen Bennett who has done that role for strangers. That's the other side of this equation. He has been doing that work for people he hasn't had a familial connection with and I think it is some of the bravest and hardest work that someone can do. And I'm very very proud to have someone in my party who has gotten into Parliament and has that sort of background because actually it showed in his speech. He was able to tell us how difficult it was navigating one set of conditions to another. And now we're not going to have that. We're going to have a simple clear set of conditions that apply in every situation because we are recognising that those children are both equal in their need and their caregiver is equal in their need. So I am very honoured to be able to speak to this bill. I am very pleased that it has the consensus of this House. I commend this bill to the House.