fact I am not convinced that the matter warrants a setting aside of
the business of the House today. The
application is therefore
declined. We come to Government orders of the
day. I call on
Government Order of the Day No. 1. Child Poverty
that the Child Poverty Reduction Bill
that the Child Poverty Reduction that
that the Child Poverty Reduction Bill be now read a first time. I
nominate the social services and
community committee to
nominate the social services and community committee to consider
the bill it is both my honour, but also,
I believe, my duty to present this
bill to the House today. I am
on record as having
stated that child poverty and child poverty reduction
poverty and child poverty reduction
is one of the reasons that
I was motivated
is one of the reasons that I was poverty
is one of the reasons that I was motivated to get into
politics and ultimately into this House. My
view on that issue remains absolutely
undiminished to this day. It is
why, as PM, I also hold the role of child
poverty reduction, that is
how strongly I feel about this issue. It
is why we initially proposed
the legislation and why we prioritised
legislation and why we prioritised
it. We want to make sure that we
make significant, substantial and
sustained action to reduce child
poverty and hardship in
New Zealand. Now I don't believe, Mr Speaker,
that I need to recount the many
images and stories that exist, that
anecdotally have quantified child
poverty in this count for
for some time. They are in the images of the
empty lunch boxes and the
child doing homework by torchlight. I
am confident that those images
have spoken to each and every member of
this House and that we don't
question the existence of poverty in
New Zealand, because it is real and
it is debilitating. As the
Children's Commissioner's expert
advisory group reported,
Children's Commissioner's expert
for instance, a much liar chance of for instance, a much liar chance of
having insufficient
having insufficient nutritious food, going to school hungry, wearing
worn out shoes or going barefoot, having
inadequate clothing, living
in a cold, damp house and sleeping in a
cold, damp house and sleeping in a
we talk about, that is ultimately the face of poverty in Aotearoa.
Yet I know, and many of us believe, this
is not what parents want for
their is not what parents want for their
children. Many sacrifice every cent
they have to try and give the best
future to their
kids possible. But so long as families and whanau live
with inadequate income, this cannot
be a debate in this
House about blame but one instead that starts to
talk about fixing the issue and
ensuring that families finally get
their dignity back. Now
every Government, present and future,
should be absolutely
dedicated to the notion that children should
get the very best start in life. Free
of poverty and hardship. I believe that
that sentiment actually has
long been shared in this
parliament because, Mr Speaker, there shouldn't
be politics in child poverty
be politics in child poverty
reduction. I believe that
we are better than that and
the public ultimately has the right to
expect better than that of us. Parties
across this House have already
pledged to act on child poverty
in different forms, something that
ultimately we should
all celebrate. But that is why I am
seeking
today. The essence of this bill is to try and build enduring
political accountability, consensus,
accountability, consensus, and action on the issue of child
poverty and to reduce it. It sets out in
law a range of
and to reduce it. It sets out in law
and hardship benchmarks for which we can be measured against and will
report on. A
requirement for successive Governments to
themselves set targets around those measures,
and ultimately a requirement to
produce a strategy, the piece
that produce a strategy, the piece
that actually details what a Government
produce a strategy, the piece that will do to take action on
child poverty, but also on child
wellbeing more generally.
Now,
Now, all
Now, all of this closely matches the member's bill I had in my name in
2012 which was all
about establishing measures
establishing measures so governments could be held to account.
could be held to account. Measurement will always be an
important starting point, it's
not the whole picture, but an important
part of it. Currently we do
see debate around child poverty
rates so often contested by policy makers
and commentators citing
commentators citing different measures and often assuming they're
directly comparable. Confusion over
measurement can undermine public
confidencings
measurement can undermine public
diminishes public accountability and debate. It ultimately doesn't
get us anywhere. That's why this bill
addresses to resolve that issue by
setting four primary measures
and six supplementary measures against
which our performance,
a government's performance, can then
be
be judged. Now, the measures that are in this
bill, they accord with
international standards and score cards
and they'll be familiar to anyone, for
instance, who is familiar with the
Child Poverty Monitor
or for instance,
instance, MSD's detailed income reports. The bill includes both
income and hardship primary measures
and I'll detail them
quickly now. The first is low income at less than
income without deducting housing costs. The second
income without deducting housing
income measure but this time after deducting housing costs and
against a fixed reference year. Now, that
enables us to unambiguitily show how
incomes have changed
but importantly also the impact of housing cost which is is
a particular issue for New Zealand at
present. The third measure
is material hardship. That
tells us about whether or not a child's
basic needs are being met within their
household. And the fourth measure is
persistent low income
or hardship. That one is an entirely new measure.
Now, taken together, they give
us a good insight and the experiences of
Kiwi households, families and
their children, but also gives
us a good way of
way of determining what policies will make a difference to those
families. Successive governments will then be
required to set both
Successive governments will then be
held to account. Now, the persistent measure, the new one I mentions,
is going to be
particularly important. Sometimes the long term impact
of being exposed to child poverty
particularly in the early years,
this rests cycles of
poverty becoming repeated through
generations. That's why it's
so important that we get
that persistent poverty measure right
and we target our Government
policies where they're needed to try and
address that generational
impact. Now, sadly we don't currently
have a suitable database
suitable database and benchmarks and that's why this bill
actually requires the government's stat to
create one, targets will
be set once that information is availableft but
that's not all. We have put in place
supplementary and low income
material Hadship benchmarks. The
reason we'll have those
additional elements, it will
help us measure against other countries, it
recognises that actually different
groups, experts in
future governments, will have their
own view on what constitutes
child poverty and gives us a more
rounded picture of what's going on in New
Zealand as a
whole. Now, why does all of this
Zealand as a whole.
matters because we all want to know, I believe, what is happening for our
most disadvantaged children so we
get our policies right. Governments
present and future, though, will
not be required to
set particular targets. Now, that's based on
a view that there will be legitimately
different views around what is
ambitious and what is not. Targets
themselves are purposefully,
therefore, not included to maintain
that neutrality. The
Government's statisticsician, must independently
of ministers, Government
report annually of the child rate poverties
against the measures. I do want to
flag here that the start
states for the bill currently are based
on when we'll have some of that
initial income reporting available. My
preference is actually is we bring
our start dates forward
to where the bill currently has it.
bill currently has it. Of course, we have also put
in a requirement that
requirement that the Public Finance Act will be the mechanism at
each budget that we'll be
required to report on our progress
in the House. What I want to acknowledge is that
although targets, we will
make sure are available for
the public to comment on, the targets set by this
Government are the
most ambitious targets we have seen
any governments set for poverty. A
targets we have seen any governments
achieved by New Zealand that I can see in the records ever. Ever! And
believes they can achieve that, then please by all means vote for this
bill and support those targets
because the honest truth is we have
never achieved them before and
if we do, we'll be amongst the best
in the world. And
world. And finally the wellbeing strategy is a requirement because we
acknowledge this bill itself
doesn't change anything except our
political accountability and the
public's ability to hold
us to account, the strategy makes all of
the difference. I commend this
bill to the House. I commend it to
the Opposition and I ask for your
support.
The
The question is that the motion be agreed to. The Hon Paula Bennett.
Mr Speaker, thank you. And thank you
for the opportunity to speak
on the Child
Child Poverty Reduction Bill. Forgive me if I stand here first off
and say how ironic I find it that
the PM stands up and lectures
us about taking the politics out of
child poverty when one of
the first things she did was remove the Better
Public Service Targets which
actually got