Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): I arise on behalf of the National Party to speak on the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki and Children and Young People's Commission Bill. National supports this bill to select committee. National is sensitive to the unfortunate reality that the stresses and pressures that have led to an uptick in family harm violence and abuse and children are sadly more susceptible to ill treatment. National believes that no effort should be spared in protecting the welfare of children. But the focus needs to be very squarely on protecting children and not expanding the powers of Government.There are some key points that need to be worked through at select committee in terms of the independence of the Children's Commissioner and in what guise that will continue or not. It's important that there is an independent body that is completely focused on the welfare of children and not one that is beholden to the politics of the day.There are some good things in this bill having a look through it. There are some cultural competencies that are being referred to. And I note that it's referring also to article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and one of those is Taking due account of the importance of the traditions and cultural values of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child" and I note some effort has been made particularly in respect of Māori with clause 92 stating that "At least half of the board members must have Māori knowledge; and have experience in and knowledge of tikanga Māori." And the duties of the board in clause 96 are to: "build and maintain relationships with iwi Māori organisations organisations representing children's and young people's issues youth-led organisations community organisations departments and other agencies by having a strong focus on the rights interests and well-being of Māori children and young people within the context of their whānau hapū and iwi" and also "promoting Māori participation and leadership and te ao Māori approaches in the performance of its functions as appropriate."This bill does represent some progress towards a fully independent watchdog for Oranga Tamariki. Independent oversight is really crucial and it contributes to building transparency. Importantly it contributes to building public trust and confidence in the system which is necessary as Oranga Tamariki has certainly gone through something of a crisis of confidence in recent times. There is a need for public confidence to be rebuilt and certainly independent oversight would be valuable in helping build that confidence.Where Government has strong statutory powers such as the power to apply to the Family Court to remove children and young people from their families and to place them with caregivers or in care and protection residences independent oversight is particularly important for people to feel that the appropriate processes are being followed that there isn't Government overreach—particularly reaching into families inappropriately. Certainly I think all of us have at least been aware of if not seen some of the footage which was quite concerning previously on some uplifts regarding some families. Having an additional safeguard in terms of independent oversight to help ensure the wellbeing and safety of both the children and their whānau families would certainly be a good thing.The Ministry rightly recognises that many public facing organisations have independent monitoring organisations—the Education Review Office the Health and Disability Commissioner the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the Ombudsman. There's certainly a lot of potential for things to go wrong in the fraught area of child protection which involves a lot of very complex issues in many cases. And just like the police there really does need to be some independent oversight and that would be a good thing.Therefore National does support this bill to select committee. We will seek to contribute constructive feedback and seek to help improve the bill to make sure it is one that can last the test of time and contribute to that public confidence and the important exercise of the Oranga Tamariki which is fundamentally to ensure the wellbeing and safety of children in our country. Thank you Madam Speaker."