Kanongata'a AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A (Labour): It is everybody's expectation that every child and young person in the care of Oranga Tamariki should be safe should feel safe and be supported. I want to acknowledge Karen Chhour who brought this urgent debate to the House but I want to take this opportunity to cover three things. One I will talk about the people that are involved; secondly the steps that have taken place; and third learn from these experiences. I have worked in Oranga Tamariki for quite some time—30 years—as a social worker as a supervisor of social workers as a youth justice manager as an adviser and I found myself here in 2017. The process the people involved—so I want to acknowledge the young people and their families who are involved. I want to acknowledge the staff who saw that something wasn't quite right and reported it. Incidents that happen like this involve interviewing the young people along with the police because it then becomes an evidential police interview. So I want to acknowledge everyone that is involved—the staff the social workers that have to inform the parents that this has happened. I want to acknowledge all the residents. Even though five young people have been identified as being affected even though there were five two staff members the whole residents the whole community are affected. Every one of those people who started work last week today last month last year has the same expectation as we all have: that every child and young person in their care should feel safe be safe and be supported. I want to acknowledge the leadership that has taken the steps that have been taken so far. The former commissioner Mike Bush I met him when he was leading the Prevention First programme in South Auckland which led to the whole of the changes in the Police. I want to acknowledge the leadership that have chosen the right people to look at this because as I mentioned before police and Oranga Tamariki have to work together and have been working together. I want to acknowledge the former chief social worker Shannon Pakura who is working alongside Mike Bush to get to a place that we can identify without all these emotions that we hear in the House who can actually take a clear head and come back to the fact that children should be safe and should feel safe when in the care of the State.We've listened to all the experiences in this House and from the member herself Karen Chhour and to former lawyers. We've listened to everybody's contribution in this House. But we will take comfort that the people who are now in charge of reviewing the residences have been given a time frame of four to six weeks to begin implementing any outcomes they get from this review. I want to acknowledge that I take peace from that. But I go back to the first part of my contribution about the young people about the people involved in the residences the young people that will be interviewed by more than one person will be interviewed by an evidential video interviewer. Well that's what happened when I was last in Oranga Tamariki in 2017. I want to acknowledge the families who received the news that this has happened to their young people because they just like us expect their children to be safe. I want to acknowledge the staff who are involved in this their supervisors. I pray that they have the right guidance to be able to support their staff so that they're able to serve the children and young people in their care. Social work is a calling and those in this profession do not for one minute start the day thinking that they would be harming children. In the rare moments that—we are now receiving—this has happened I just want to acknowledge the spirit that these staff are in when they attend work that they go to work and that they're fully supported. For our children and young people to feel safe and be safe in the care of Oranga Tamariki we must also make sure that the staff providing the services feel safe and are supported. What I've seen today from the chief social worker Chappie Te Kani the steps that he has taken he has chosen the right people to lead this—Mike Bush Shannon Pakura—and they have made every intention in what we've read in the media that they're going to consult everybody who needs to be consulted. I want to end my speech saying that I'm comforted in reading what the chief executive had said that he has provided the support to ensure that the young people in care feel safe and are being provided with the right support. Again I want to acknowledge and thank Karen Chhour for bringing this matter for urgent debate in the House and acknowledge every young person child and young person that's been taken into care has been removed from their family. I as a person who has never had to be removed from my family will never understand that. I want to say that I will never understand it but we will try our best to do that.As I started my speech like everybody in this House and like all of New Zealand we expect our children young people who are in the care of the State Oranga Tamariki to feel safe and be safe and be supported. I look forward to the review by Mike Bush and supported by Shannon Pakura. Mālō 'aupito.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.