Fairbrother Russell: Children Young Persons and Their Families  Amendment Bill (No 6) — First Reading 
Fairbrother Russell: Children Young Persons and Their Families  Amendment Bill (No 6) — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14588] 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER (Labour) 
: 
 The previous speaker Anne Tolley stood up and said that National will not support the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 6) because it did not do anything. My friend the Hon Mark Burton asked what in 9 years National has proposed to do differently and of course she avoided that matter entirely. But it must have circulated down into her thought process because she then changed tack entirely and started to praise all aspects of the bill. Essentially the National Party is saying: “We will not support the bill because it is not our idea but we think the bill is a good thing to have because we do not have a better option.” National members will not support the bill because it is too good an idea for them to possess and therefore they will vote against it. That is the rubbish we are faced with on this side when a Minister such as the Hon Ruth Dyson brings into this House innovative forward-thinking legislation. 
Let us look at the challenge laid out by the previous speaker. She asked what this bill will do to stop our kids being abused in their homes and to stop children being put into clothes dryers. Well I ask the member to go to the explanatory note of the bill which will take her to information on new sections 17 17A 17B 17C 17D 17E and 17F which are to be inserted in the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act by clause 10. In the short time I have I would say that sections 17 to 17F will enable a person taking an initial complaint or undergoing an initial assessment whether it be a policeman or social worker to bring the agencies together to develop a plan that is not bogged down by bureaucratic and privacy issues so that when a complaint arises there is an obligation to investigate and to coordinate. That is the total answer to the concerns expressed by the previous speaker who failed to get to section 17 onward in clause 10 in the bill. 
The member then went on to say that she had a person come to see her in a clinic in Wairoa once. This person had been the subject of offending by a youth and was unable to attend a family group conference. What the member forgot to say is that clause 15 makes quite a dramatic change to a well-established and very efficient family group conference practice. 
The family group conference practices that are followed in the Family Court are recognised worldwide as leaders in the field. Clause 15 takes away the ability of a child or young person who does not agree—or if the conference does not unanimously agree—with an outcome from stopping the conference’s recommendations from being enacted. So we get to a stage where a family group conference cannot be hijacked by an obdurate parent caregiver or youth and if the wishes or desires of the family group conference generally are for a course of action then it will be carried out. That answers totally the concern the previous speaker had about wanting to reconvene a second family group conference—she complained that the youth had then been moved up from Wairoa to Auckland—because the family group conference can be made to work. 
We find that this bill addresses many issues in the one bill. It covers the field of bringing agencies together and of preventing abuse and harm to children. It raises the age of those appearing before the Youth Court to 18 which happens to be consistent with the Government’s policy of encouraging and keeping young people in a form of education until they are 18. Raising the age of the Youth Court to 18 removes many anomalies in practice where children of 16 suddenly become adults at 17 when they should still be treated in a nurturing process. 
Interestingly as the Minister pointed out we have had greater success in the punishments and the jurisdiction of the Youth Court than we have had in our adult courts. What does that tell us? It tells us that when the agencies work together they provide an opportunity for rehabilitation that has a real impact. So lifting the age to 17 makes more effective the bringing together of the various agencies to make good the promise that our youth justice system already holds. 
This is a comprehensive bill. I wanted to move on in the time available—but I cannot—to the provisions that relate to 10-year-olds and 11 and 12-year-olds. Those provisions will have to remain for another speech. All I would say at this stage is that this bill reflects Labour’s commitment to helping young people who offend to get the best possible help and support in order to reduce future offending. This is no idle hope because the figures show that these provisions work. We are seeing in practice a significant change and improvement and this bill goes a long way towards doing that. 
Labour does care about how young people are treated and are committed and we care about eliminating child abuse and neglect. We need to make the changes in this bill as a hands-off approach is not the way to ensure a better future for our kids and our grandchildren. This bill helps to make clear when Government and non-government organisations can appropriately share information about the safety welfare and well-being of children and young persons. The bill will help improve responsiveness to the needs of children and young people when concerns are reported. This bill goes to the heart of the improvements needed in the children and young persons and youth justice area. 
As the Minister said the bill will eventually be in two parts. The second part will address many of the provisions in plain English and I look forward to the development of that. Needless to say at this stage this bill raises the age to include 17-year-olds which coordinates the many services that intersect into a young person’s life when they come across the Family Court or the Youth Court. This bill will build further on the very good results we already have from our youth justice system. I strongly support this bill. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: I call on the member Anne Collins—Judith Collins I am sorry.