McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I too have a speech and I promise I won't be as passionate about it because my thoughts are going to be about the kids within the Family Court rather than the personalities across the way.ACT will continue to support this bill but we do have concerns around the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that went through during the committee of the whole House stage. It was tabled without thorough explanation as to its contents and through my speech I'd like to reflect on some of those aspects.In the committee of the whole House stage a Supplementary Order Paper was lodged by the Government that made fundamental changes to the way children are processed through the Family Court when Oranga Tamariki are involved. Questions to the Minister who sat in the chair—which was the Minister of Police at the time Ginny Andersen—were around the removal of the ability of a Family Court Associate to actually assist when it comes to children caught up within the Oranga Tamariki Act and that was made.This bill sought submissions from the public and I'd like to thank and acknowledge all of those people who came through and spoke to us. Some of those stories were quite heartfelt and of course they came looking for change. The Justice Committee completed a report and I'd like to acknowledge all of those that sat on the committee because we thought we worked really well together. All parties that were involved within the Justice Committee agreed to the report's contents and its presentation.But then at the eleventh hour an SOP was produced that makes fundamental changes only involving those kids caught up in the Oranga Tamariki process. Family Court Associates now won't be able to direct people to attend counselling won't be able to grant people leave to make representations they can't direct a mediation conference to be convened and they won't even be able to adjourn proceedings.We hear constantly that we've got kids caught within the system—some of them for eight months some of them for a lot longer than that—and that they've been removed from their families and are currently stuck in limbo. And without discussion with the people with the submitters even with the select committee the Labour Government has just removed this ability for Family Court Associates to deal with these administrative issues of a child caught within the Oranga Tamariki system. This is what Family Court Associates are meant to be dealing with; it's what they're being created to do. This removal has been made with absolutely no valid explanation or reason given at all.When inquired upon in the committee of the whole House stage in the first explanation given by the Minister it was stated that submitters had expressed concerns around the uplifting of children and that the Minister of Justice had considered it best to remove clauses from the bill that give a Family Court Associate the powers of a judge to uplift under the Oranga Tamariki Act.But those clauses around uplift actually remained in the bill; they were not being removed. All the administration pieces have been removed except for section 39 about the placement of safety warrants; and section 40 about the warrant to remove a child. Both of those sections have remained. Subsequent inquiries did not produce any further information apart from the Minister's statement that these issues are weighty ones. I would have hoped that we would consider all matters that are before the Family Court as being weighty ones.And when the Minister later commented that it's important that the delay for our children—not to have contact with whānau for significant periods of time—is damaging for our community it can be detrimental to the wellbeing of tamariki I wholeheartedly concur with her. I firmly believe that the Minister in fact both Ministers—the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police—who have represented on this bill have these kids'—these kids caught in this fraught Family Court's system—best interests at heart; their parents' ability to get their kids and themselves out of the Family Court system even more so. As the Minister of Justice actually said in her speech tonight the court delays exacerbate and cause trauma to these kids. So I'm disappointed with what I feel is a significant change made undemocratically and without good explanation when the comments around children's welfare are not disputed by any party in this House. It's unconscionable to those very kids that we're trying to protect and get through the Family Court system in a timely way.Nevertheless we still support this bill because Family Court Associates are expected to reduce the workload of our overstretched our overworked and heavily burdened Family Court judges. There are six Family Court Associates expected to be part of the initial tranche of recruitment with the remaining positions to be filled over the following two years. They should receive training similar to that of a judge. The New Zealand Law Society indicated that there are 173 potential practising lawyers who would be able to fill these roles. And it should make a difference to around 25 percent of the estimated administration time of judges freeing up a quarter of the time that judges have to enable them to be able to really look at the serious issues that are before them.I have another concern around the change in the reporting time because it was that we had to report within five years. The report on the effectiveness on reducing delays in the Family Court no longer needs to be produced within five years of the Act being implemented. The report now only needs to be started within five years and it can be produced at any stage afterwards. Labour has initiated a clause via a Supplementary Order Paper that delays reporting on delays. ACT won't hold this one up any longer. At this stage of this parliamentary term we will support the introduction of Family Court Associates to help our Family Court judges. And with ACT's policies in place and those that are coming we look forward to helping all children caught within our Family Court system without excluding those that are caught up in the Oranga Tamariki regime.So with that ACT continues to support this bill through its third reading.Debate interrupted.