poverty. It continues the track record that we
poverty. It continues the track
has now been passed to the current government and I acknowledge you for
your efforts. The Rt Hon PM. Thank
you, Madam chair. I want to take the
opportunity to respond, I think,
to the Hon Louise Upston, but I want to
respond directly to the SOP
put forward by member
David Seymour, not least because he remains the
member of the House yet to be convinced of
the wisdom of this legislation.
So it might mean I pay him a
little more attention on this occasion. He
made some comments
around the targets that are embedded in this
bill.
targets that are embedded in this bill. He specifically talked about
the relative measures. Those
have beened broadly by the international
community. Of course
the relative measures are used by UNICEF by
the OECD, and they don't give
a complete picture on their own. I accept
that. I would be alarm if the member is
rejecting the measures altogether
because they
because they are well entrenched within the international community
as being a good indication of the
general wellbeing of a society based
on those who are living
general wellbeing of a society based
the median income. Madam chair, I want to acknowledge what the member
has said about
his Supplementary Order Paper. He said that we
might get a better picture if we break
down some of the circumstances
of individual children
individual children into questions surveyed by the statistician around
things like whether a
child lacks pairs of shoes, sets of warm clothes
a waterproof coat, access to
meat, fish or chicken, a separate
bed, etc, etc. That is
all incredibly important information to know. That
is why the
member might be interested to know what
the definition of
definition of material hardship is. Material hardship is measured by the
number of individuals who
identify with not having seven out
of 17 particular forms of wellbeing
in the form of food,
clothing, their accommodation,
accommodation, their ability to pay bills. The list looks like this. You
might recognise it because it's
similar to the member's
list. Enforced lack of essentials, male
with meat, chicken
or fish every second day. Two pairs of shoes,
suitable clothing, homes
home and contents insurance,
contents insurance, whether you borrowed money in the last 1 months,
whether or not you could pay an
unavoidable bill
whether or not you could pay an
Whether or not you put up with feeling cold to save on
heating costs, whether you postpone doctor
visits
costs, whether you postpone doctor
acknowledge most of them, as far as I can tell, are in your list,
Mr Seymour. That is
the definition of material hardship.
Seymour. That is the definition of material hardship. definition
of
pleased to know that clause 2 of the bill includes material
hardship as one of the things we must report on.
We have not taken a singular view of
what poverty issues are. We
have included reference to
material hardship and it is something that we
are mindful of and
we will be reporting on and we will be driving
activity as a result of reporting
on that. And so I hope that
the inclusion of the range of issues
that you've highlighted, and
I think you're right to highlight, we
haven't put the expanded list in the
bill so,
bill so, look, there may be things where there are some minor
differences. I think, for instance,
you have said access to a meal with
meat, fish or chicken each day.
The Minister or the health may have
some questions over whether that is good
for bowel health
but by and large many of the things you have
raised are included within those surveys
that are undertaken around the 17
essential items and whether or
not someone falls in the category of
being in material hardship by
being without a certain number of those.
without a certain number of those. I'm happy to discuss that
further but I'm hoping we
have convinced honourable member
honourable member to support the honourable member to support the
bill. I call Aupito William Sio. As
I listen to Mr Seymour earlier and
hearing him, I think
he was suggesting to the House that to
measure income was the last pathway
to go forward on this. I could
not help but think that in my
engagements to the
community in the last 12 months in
talking about this particular issue, it is often