Ardern JacindaCHILD POVERTY REDUCTION BILLCHILDREN'S AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingsRt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Minister for Child Poverty Reduction): I move That the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the Children's Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Mr—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! I call Jacinda Ardern and I'm going to admonish Mr King who is exceptionally rude and somewhat noisy. The Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern will start again.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I want to start with a reflection on some comments I made in this place 10 years and two days ago to this day. And those were actually the words that I spoke in this Parliament for the very first time. I don't often reflect on my maiden speech but it occurred to me when thinking about my long-held desire to progress child poverty legislation that it was in that speech that I first reflected on my motivations to be in here in Parliament. I've spoken often of some of the places that I grew up in in New Zealand and the influence that that had on my social conscience. I think the way that I referred to that in my speech at the time was My passion for social justice came from what I saw; my love of politics came when I realised that it was the key to changing what I saw. And there is so much to change. The fifth Labour Government made good progress on what I believe must continue to be our focus: reducing poverty in this country. Labour lifted 130000 children out of poverty through Working for Families but that does not mean that many do not remain there still. I will not pretend that the response is simple; it is not. … These children are not part of an underclass as I have heard them called; they are part of our community and we have a responsibility to continue the momentum of the previous Labour Government and to finally rid ourselves of poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is our collective challenge." You know when I think about it the reference to a collective challenge is one of the things that I feel most proud of because in this House today we are not doing this on our own. This is no longer just an initiative of the Labour Party although I'm very proud of the role that we have played. This is now an initiative that has been led by a coalition Government with the support of New Zealand First and the Green Party. And it also is an initiative that has had the support of the National Party. I want to acknowledge that. This is this Parliament's collective challenge and the groups that have come together in Parliament today to support it in this House mean that it will have an enduring legacy—unless by some shock of nature the ACT Party's vote grows beyond one. It is a collective challenge and it has been collectively responded to by this House and for that I acknowledge each and every one of you. But there are many others that I wish to thank and that's where I want to start my speech here today—and that is with a note of thanks. I want to thank the countless individuals organisations researchers and academics who have worked tirelessly on the issue of child poverty and child well-being over a number of years. I want to thank and reflect on the work of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. It was established by the Children's Commissioner at the time Dr Russell Wills and it was chaired by Jonathan Boston and Tracey McIntosh. Now they shifted the debate and brought focus and rigour to this issue. They were the first who drew on the child poverty legislation of the United Kingdom including Wales and proposed that we take a hybrid here in New Zealand. John Hancock as I understand it was one of the people who drafted the first chapter that suggested that the legislation that we will essentially pass in this House today should be constructed. And John wherever you are right now I acknowledge your work and the role you have played in getting us here today.I also want to acknowledge a very special man to this place to the Ministry of Social Development to Parliament and to all Ministers who have ever engaged with him—Bryan Perry. No one knows numbers like Bryan. He has been critical in making sure that we have produced a robust document here that does what it attempts to do and that is to hold ourselves to account. I also want to acknowledge the current Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft for his enduring commitment to improving the lives of children and the members of the Social Services and Community Committee who worked on the bill—and the more than 600 submitters—and took on board the recommendations of many in making alterations to this bill. So what does it do? It creates a legislative framework aimed to ensure that successive Governments—and with its cross-party support I truly believe it will be successive Governments—are transparent and held to account in reducing child poverty. It recognises that we must have an enduring commitment in this area if we are to see long-term systemic change and ensures that we will have independent reporting to ensure progress is made. It sets out measures that accord with international standards and scorecards and it does so by setting four primary and six supplementary measures against which Government's performance can be judged.The four primary measures are made up of two income one material hardship and one persistence measure—the income measures applied both before and after deducting housing costs. They will ensure that they give us adequate information to know what policies will make the biggest difference to children and their families. Successive Governments will be required to set three-year intermediate and 10-year long-term targets for each of the primary measures. Governments will not be required to set targets for the supplementary measures; it is up to them how far their ambition goes and the Government Statistician must independently of Ministers and Government report annually on the rates of child poverty against all those measures.Significantly the legislation amends the Public Finance Act—I knew I would get my way in there somehow—so that on Budget day the Government reports on its progress towards reducing child poverty and how the Budget contributes to that goal. It also establishes a dedicated child well-being strategy which requires Governments to make a commitment to ensure that all of New Zealand's children can thrive and that we fulfil this Government's goal of being the best place in the world to be a child.I don't want to underestimate the power and importance of the child well-being strategy. Measuring poverty is one thing; setting goals to reduce poverty is another but making sure that we have an action plan that captures the voice of children is critical. We have undertaken to engage children in that process and we're undertaking that work now. I acknowledge the Child Wellbeing Unit and the Child Poverty Unit for the work that they are doing out of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet alongside Oranga Tamariki and the Minister for Children. Here is just a small handful of some of the postcards that have been written directly to me as part of that process. Yes I am reading every single one of them. The message that they send is really clear. They're concerned about everything from mental health and the well-being of their peers to whether or not their peers have enough food to eat enough money in the household to thrive to participate to feel like they're making the most of their talents and their opportunities. From time to time they send me their Instagram handle as well and ask for a cheeky follow. But either way this is capturing the voices of children and it is critical to the work that we do. This legislation is pioneering. It is unashamedly bold. We have already alongside that I think set bold targets—10-year targets that will essentially halve the rate of child poverty in New Zealand. These will be ambitious targets to meet but if we are successful it will place us amongst some of the lowest levels of child poverty amongst countries that we would compare ourselves to. But more importantly than that it will make a substantial difference to the lives of children and their families. We've already started. The Families Package—$5.5 billion of investment—means that once fully rolled out over 380000 families will be on average $75 a week better off; the winter energy payment—over 700000 people many of whom will be on low incomes and have children will benefit; free doctors visits for under-14s thanks to New Zealand First; the mental health strategies we've been rolling out for under-25s thanks to the Green Party; nurses in schools which we put in last Budget; making sure housing standards are lifted so that children are warm and dry in their homes; and making sure that we increase the number of State and public housing for those who need it most. Ultimately we are focused on making sure that we can stand proudly and say we're a Government that cares for the most vulnerable. But who better to sum up why we do work like this than someone like Nelson Mandela. He said that "Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice." Thank you to everyone who's been involved in what I ultimately see as an act of justice. Kia ora koutou katoa."