Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Madam Speaker. ACT has always supported helping people in genuine need and providing support to children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in need of care. In saying that, I listened yesterday to speeches, and lots of good points were made. To the average person, or even to the politician sitting in the House today, this bill seems pretty simple—no big deal, a few small changes here and there—to the point where there wasn’t much to say, so the nit-picking began on things that were completely irrelevant to this bill. I can tell you, as a child in care, the name of the benefit I was on was not my major concern; it was whether I had food and a roof over my head. No words can describe how big of a deal this bill really is. Sometimes the simple things make the most changes.

We have talked about how the disparity exists between the different benefits. As a child, I lived through that and saw the sacrifices that my caregivers made to provide me with the necessities of life in a time where I needed it the most. Until you have been in care and seen what these amazing people do, you can never truly understand or appreciate the sacrifices they make to provide for the children in their care. I saw how hard they worked to provide not only for me but for the many children that came into their home, some for a few days and others for a little longer. Please hear me when I say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to every caregiver and foster parent that has given their blood, sweat, and tears to make a difference in a child’s life.

We believe that this bill takes a small and positive step towards improving the support that is provided to those in genuine need and we will therefore be supporting the first reading of the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. This bill recognises the need to increase financial assistance for children outside of State care, but it also highlights the importance of the caregivers and the service that they provide. So in saying that, I commend this bill to the House, and ACT will support the first reading.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. First of all I just want to tautoko the speeches from last night, and also Karen’s heartfelt speech around the great work that our caregivers do in quite often challenging situations.

It’s a real honour and a privilege to take a call on this bill, which amends to remove disparities in the current legislation to make it equitable for all caregivers and therefore the tamariki in their care. Extending the eligibility for the orphans benefit and the unsupported child benefit, for which I would also like to see a name change, to caregivers with tamariki outside of State care, means all caregivers will be able to support tamariki to celebrate their milestones by accessing birthday allowance and the Christmas allowance.

Removing the current 12-month eligibility rule will make it just that little bit easier for our wonderful caregivers and the tamariki that they care for. I have a grandmother who was raising her grandchild in my electorate, who said that at times she really struggles to save anything extra after paying for school fees and school uniforms. So this amendment bill will ensure that this grandmother and her moko can now make sure they have something to celebrate his birthday with and something to open on Christmas Day. Without it they would really struggle.

I know this bill will make a real difference to our fantastic caregivers and our tamariki. Therefore I’m honoured to tautoko and commend this bill to the House.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Since it’s the first time I’ve actually spoken in the House, can I congratulate you on your appointment. I think you’ll make a fantastic presiding officer, and I think it’s an important part of the parliamentary process that we have good referees during the match. So I wish you well over the coming term—and the other presiding officers as well.

So it’s good to be back in the 53rd Parliament, it’s fair to say I spent probably parts of the election night not thinking I was back, so it’s good to be here. I think, as I reflect on this bill today, what an important bill, because I think what it does is it grounds us. It’s very easy in our job to assume some self-importance, and that we start to believe in ourselves that we are important, but in fact for me—as an electorate MP—some of the biggest wins that you can make are the small ones that mean the most for the people that we represent.

This isn’t a big bill, it’s fairly technical—a large part of it is reducing the 12-month rule. But I tell you what, for those people that it does affect, this is big news. I want to acknowledge the Minister, Kelvin Davis, for bringing this into the House, but also the former Minister, the Hon Tracey Martin. You know, I did value the Hon Tracey Martin’s inputs to the House over the previous few terms. I hope she’s listening today—if she is, she’s got real problems and needs to switch off. But, in fairness, you always knew with the Hon Tracey Martin that she brought her heart to her work. And when you look at some of those other New Zealand First MPs, you know, let’s not forget Richard Prosser—from my part of the world, Waimakariri. And who would forget Denis O’Rourke, with his rousing speeches in the House? We miss Denis; bring back Denis.

One thing that I took a key focus of, when I read our notes about this bill—I’ve underlined it here—which I was quite alarmed: by age 24, people who grow up in foster care are earning, on average, around half the income of those who are not. People who have been in foster care at the age of 24 earn about half the income of those who did not grow up in foster care. That’s a damning statistic, and it’s incumbent on us, as legislators, and in people who develop policy that ultimately translates into practice in the real world, that we address that. On this side of the House, and I acknowledge the Hon Bill English for social investment, because what social investment was—and I think if you look at the example of teen mums, classically, decades ago, they would be put on a benefit, we’d wave them goodbye, and they would stay on that benefit, I think the data said, for about 35 years.

Now, thanks to flexible education models, teen mums and dads—there’s no underachievement, their aspirations are high. They can go to flexible education units, get the education they need, as well as look after their young children and go on to succeed. So it is concerning when you read a statistic that now we know that those in foster care at the age of 24 will go on to earn half the income as an average person at the age of 24—and that needs to be addressed. This bill is not going to be the silver bullet, but it goes some way in acknowledging that, and acknowledging the entitlements for those who are giving up their time, their love, and their resources for some of the most vulnerable in New Zealand. This is a great Christmas present. Let’s hope the bill will get the royal assent as soon as possible and make a real difference for some of the most vulnerable people in New Zealand. That’s why I wholeheartedly support this bill. Thank you.

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: Madam Speaker?

Just before I take the call, can the member confirm whether he is taking the five-minute call or the following 10-minute call?

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: I am seeking the five-minute call, Madam Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Duncan Webb.

Kia ora. Thank you, Madam Speaker and congratulations on your role here. You’ve graduated in more ways than one. I’m sure you’ll be a fine, fine Assistant Speaker. And thank you, Mr Doocey, for that traversal of all kinds of things other than the bill before the House.

This is an excellent bill that really does iron out some inconsistencies, and it’s something that this Government is committed to doing: looking at the welfare system and not only improving it for all New Zealanders but getting rid of some of those inconsistencies which see people who are in fundamentally the same position dealt with in a different way. So this is a good bill: it’s pretty straightforward, it’s pretty common-sense, and there’s no more really that need be said. I absolutely commend it to the House.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to take a short call on the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. I sat through the debate last night, and I want to commend the Minister for introducing this first piece of legislation in his new role as the Minister for Children. As I was listening to him presenting the speech from the Minister for the first reading, I really heard the genuine care of a pāpā in his speech, particularly when he talked about acknowledging those who are caring for children whose own whānau or their parents are not able to do so, and in particular when he referred to the payments for birthdays and Christmas. As today is our last sitting day and we are heading into that period, I think it was just really relevant to the feeling that we all have at this time of the year. I think it’s absolutely acknowledged that that is something that we want for all of our tamariki.

I want to also acknowledge all of those who have spoken in this debate and given their personal experiences of it from across the House. I think it’s been a really genuine debate on this first reading. I look forward to the select committee process and the submissions that we will receive, and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Look, it’s a pleasure to support this bill, which you’ve heard our previous speakers talk to. Several points to it: if we look at the key actions of this bill, the first action is to improve or make better sense of what was previously a 12-month eligibility rule whereby those carers who were looking after orphans—and I agree that maybe there’s a better word, but orphans—and unsupported children were ineligible for this sort of benefit if they didn’t commit to undertaking care for longer than 12 months. This is a significant number of people. We can see in the regulatory impact statement that the orphans benefit is paid to 300 caregivers—roughly, 400 children—and the unsupported child benefit to 11,000 caregivers or around 17,000 children and young people. I want to echo my thanks to all of those caregivers who step outside to help the families glue together in times of unexpected and undesired challenges. Thank you very much for what you do, and this bill partly reflects that.

If we look at the financial components to this, the birthday and Christmas allowance, it’s actually calculated on the foster care allowance through Oranga Tamariki. Roughly, the benefits we’re talking about here are about $200 a week, and the Christmas and birthday allowance is half of a weekly allowance, so it may be around $100 for those events, and in total its fiscal impact is $16.931 million. If we look at the increase in eligibility—not requiring 12 months’ commitment from a caregiver—the fiscal impact of that is $46.668 million, which, certainly—these are still numbers to take into account. We need accountability. But in the overall context of those social services, it would seem not quite so much.

We’re in support of this. I want to echo the work of Tracey Martin, who brought this forward. It just seemed like an inconsistency that didn’t make sense. Tracey led this out well, which brings it here to its first reading. I think it’s worthy, clearly, of going to select committee. It’s not clear to me why the foster care allowance isn’t mentioned in parts of this yet it appears in the regulatory impact statement, and yet there’s no fiscals to that and it’s not talked to otherwise in the bill. So we just need some understanding of that. Of course, that’s the benefit of the select committee process. We can do a deeper dive on that—have a bit of understanding why there are parts of the regulatory impact assessment that were not thought worthy of scrutiny. They thought that Oranga Tamariki, the internal quality assurance processes of Oranga Tamariki, would suffice. We know they’re struggling at the moment anyway. Again, this is an area that the select committee can delve into.

So I think most of what’s been said is traversing the key points of this bill, and it’s with pleasure that the National Party will be supporting it through to select committee. Thank you.

It gives me great pleasure to be the final speaker on the first reading of this bill. Sometimes a lot happens in this House and those of us who come and go, we might pick up a bill, we might hear a debate going on, but every so often something happens that happened to me today. I came into the House not expecting to speak. I looked at this bill, picked it up, and saw what a fine piece of legislation it is, and then I sat and listened to the speakers that have come before me. I heard the universal agreement on the bill and some very moving stories. I missed the name of the ACT speaker, but it was the first time that I’ve sat here and a lump came to my throat, because that was somebody who was obviously speaking from experience.

Having come to this House as a police officer—we all come from different ways, but one of the things that’s common with the people I’ve dealt with is an alienation from mainstream society. That alienation measures itself out, manifests itself in so many different ways. We talk about the gangs. We talk about all sorts of societal failures. But it starts with the small things. So many of these young people that end up—the people we talk about in derisory terms have been alienated from the start. And little things like the people that have looked after them where they were in foster care—just no money for the small things that manifested the big things.

So just looking through the provisions of this bill, and the fact that we’ve had so much agreement on it, gives me absolutely no hesitation in giving this bill my full support and commending this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

The question is, That the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill be considered by the Social Services and Community Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Social Services and Community Committee.