Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Madam Deputy Speaker. Thank you very much. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and I am going to try and stay apolitical because what we have seen from the Opposition to date—and unfortunately from all members that have spoken—is a level of politics that has been interjected into this discussion. Considering that it appears that both sides of the House believe that this is worthy believe that our children are worth it believe that we need to work together to set this vision in place for our nation and then hold ourselves accountable regardless of who becomes a Government in the future then let's stick with that sort of wording. So I'm going to try. I mean I'm a political animal by nature but I am going to try.There are things inside this bill that have yet to be mentioned and I want to talk about Part 3 Amendments to Vulnerable Children Act 2014". This bill actually makes amendments to change the title of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014 to the Children's Act. I'm pleased to see it. As I have spoken in this House on many occasions since becoming the Minister for Children—and I acknowledge you Madam Deputy Speaker as previously the Minister for Social Development who implemented and created Oranga Tamariki—in my view this is the first piece of legislation that starts to set us on that pathway that creates the vision for our children. All of us in New Zealand raised here understand and have heard often the statement that says that this is the best place to bring up kids—and considering what many other nations are like that is very true for many other nations. But it's not what it was and we need to reassess and we need to hold ourselves accountable across this House and across whoever is in Government.This is only the beginning of a pathway. What there is in Part 1—Part 1 is being replaced inside that Act by this piece of legislation and the Government strategy for improving children's well-being and the Oranga Tamariki action plan. So those are all pieces that are going to fall out of this initial step. So not only does it put in place and finally into legislation—regardless of whose targets are whose targets we finally now have in a piece of legislation at least something that we will be held to account on and that's an enormous step.I've sat for years in this House arguing and debating on bills about whether we should feed our children. I've sat in this House and heard argument after argument about whether the State should provide meals for children at school. I acknowledge the previous Government put into place through charities predominantly a delivery of food in schools with the help of Fonterra and Sanitarium. We need to acknowledge those organisations but it behoves us to continue to have that argument. Are they not our children? I want to be clear though too that by changing the name of the Act Part 3 does not remove Oranga Tamariki's focus on the 5600-odd children who are in our care nor does it change the focus of Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry for Children on the 92000 children who have many of the indicators that we know mean that they are on the cusp of falling into our care. We need to concentrate on prevention and early intervention for those children. Part of this legislation by making sure that we hold ourselves accountable will go towards us making sure that none of those 92000 fall over into that 5600 that we currently must take from their whānau and family and actually hold the care in our possession as we work to bring them back into that safe and committed environment.So nothing about the change of the name changes that but what it does do is it stretches what is the focus of a Government—this Government any Government—to all the children of New Zealand. We need to set—and it will be set through those other pieces of work that I'm talking about: the child's well-being strategy and the Oranga Tamariki action plan—a baseline that we will not allow our children to fall below. To do that we need to support their families and I've heard exactly the same words from the Opposition today. I've heard exactly the same words when the members of the Opposition were Ministers. We know that children do not live in isolation. We know that we must support those who are vulnerable. We also know that many are vulnerable tomorrow who may not be vulnerable today. The flexibility that we must have the way that we see our citizens and our responsibility towards them—this is the first step on a different pathway in my view. It says that the State must take responsibility for the people who placed us here and use their dollars to support them to make sure that they do not fall below a line that we will not accept that our citizens will live below: living in a car living in a garage living in mouldy bedrooms not being able to afford to go to the doctor not being able to afford to give lunch at school not being able to do so many things that we know are the minimum we would expect for our citizens. This is the first step on that pathway I believe and I'm thrilled that the Opposition is joining with the Government to—and I acknowledge that they say that there is no guarantee that this is the first step that this is the first reading and that they will work I hope constructively at select committee. If the targets are too low—Hon Tim Macindoe: Of course we will.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Thank you Mr Macindoe that's great. If the targets are too low then absolutely let's have a talk about that because regardless of who sits on this side of the House they will be held accountable for those targets. So if the Opposition believes that the aspiration is too low and they want to set the aspiration higher then let's have that conversation and then let's have the conversation at the same time about how we'll work together to make sure as a nation we reach those aspirations. How about we work together to try and figure out that in 2020 this won't be a political issue either that from this moment forward while we might talk about trade deals in 2020 and while we might talk about immigration and so on let's not make this the issue of the election campaign in 2020. Let's say from this moment forward this is an apolitical conversation. We will all hold ourselves to account. We all care. We are all going to work towards it. Kia ora Madam Deputy Speaker."