Chhour KarenKAREN CHHOUR (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.At 11 a.m. we were shocked with an emergency media stand-up from Oranga Tamariki to talk about an issue that has arisen. There were allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour from two staff members of Oranga Tamariki—this is just coming to light. These are two separate facilities one facility is where children who have committed crimes are in a facility that should be protecting them from harming themselves or harming anybody else who is not safe and then the other facility is a care and protection facility. The words care" and "protection" become a bit of a joke when they are not being protected within that very facility.We have had so many incidences since I've become an MP in this House where Oranga Tamariki has come into a bad light with the way that they are running the organisation. We had humongous debates around watering down the oversight of Oranga Tamariki last year and in September last year I stood up and I even had a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) for this very issue with youth justice facilities and facilities run by Oranga Tamariki. I had an SOP that I put forward and I asked for the Labour Government to accept that SOP that would allow somebody to go unannounced into a youth justice facility or any organisation that was run by Oranga Tamariki if a child felt they were not safe within that organisation and needed somebody there to represent them—and that SOP was shot down.We had two young people that sat and spilled their guts on national TV begging this Government to make sure their children within youth justice facilities and Oranga Tamariki - run facilities were kept safe and had advocates that could come in and advocate for them. But we watered down that Oranga Tamariki oversight. We split it into three separate organisations and we said children would fall between these cracks young people would fall between these cracks and we're seeing it happen already. Where were the people that were supposed to protect these young people? Five young people so far have come forward to say that they have been inappropriately touched and inappropriate sexual behaviour has happened within these facilities—from what I can tell. You know there's not much information right now but this is a sign that Oranga Tamariki is not fit to run these facilities. They're even having to hand it over to somebody else now because they're not fit to run these facilities.How can we call them "care and protection facilities" when we're not protecting these kids. They've been traumatised most of their life probably; they've been put in a facility where we're meant to take care of them and provide them with the services and what they need and we're traumatising them all over again. We had this argument last year—that children were not being listened to children were not being heard and children were being sent into places where they were not safe. They felt like they were not being heard and now it's come to fruition. It's not that long ago that we were having this discussion and nobody over in the Labour corner would listen to these young people. Nobody would listen to every other party in this House that said we're getting this wrong.And now we've got five children—that we know of—that have been harmed and hurt. I am so angry on behalf of these kids. We cannot take that harm back. We cannot fix this problem. We already had just finished an inquiry of abuse in care. We've pushed that inquiry report-back to next year. We haven't even finished apologising for past abuse and the abuse is still happening. Apologies mean nothing if it is still happening. And nobody wants to stand up and actually take responsibility for this. These are children that rely on us. These are children that rely on us to protect them and we are not doing it. Where were the people that were meant to be there for these kids to say "Hey something's not right." Where were the social workers? Where were the counsellors? Where were the staff that were meant to protect these kids? If these facilities are overcrowded if they are understaffed why hasn't something been put in place to make sure that these kids are protected? These facilities are lock-up facilities with CCTV cameras. How is this happening? Why is nobody speaking up? And why has it taken so long for this to come out and for us to actually be able to debate this?We can't keep doing this. And I've stood in this House and said this on my very first day. I know I'll have to have these uncomfortable conversations but I keep having these uncomfortable conversations—and it shouldn't be the case. We should be getting it right by now. How many millions of dollars have we spent on an inquiry into past abuse; have we not learnt? Have we not put processes in place to make sure this doesn't keep happening? To stand up and say "This is not good enough it shouldn't have happened. We're going to have another inquiry." I'm sick of reading inquiries. They say the same thing over and over again for years and nothing's changed. It's another generation that's so broken they can't be fixed. Where is the outrage for these kids? Where are the people that are standing up and saying "This is not OK"? Because these kids need a voice and they need to be heard. I don't want to have to stand up here again and be apologising next year for the next five kids that haven't been protected—what are we doing?We need to get this right. We need to take the politics out of this and put the kids at the front to work together—all parties—to make sure that we're not standing here in 20 years' time apologising for another 20 years of abuse in care because I am not going to take responsibility for that. But this Government needs to take some responsibility for lightening the oversight of Oranga Tamariki a year ago and not taking it seriously enough. And now we're finding that the advocacy for these young people was not there. That's not their fault; it is partly the Government's fault for taking away that advocacy. It's OK to admit when you're wrong; what's not OK is to keep making excuses. I'll keep standing here if I have to and yelling from the rooftops until not one more child is let down by an organisation that's meant to protect them. Thank you Mr Speaker."