Radhakrishnan PriyancaHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for Youth): Thank you Mr Speaker. As other speakers have done before me in this House today can I begin by acknowledging what happened to Malachi and to say that it was absolutely shocking and unacceptable that this happened to a child in Aotearoa New Zealand. As we know the Chief Ombudsman received a complaint about the actions of Oranga Tamariki (OT) in relation to the death of Malachi and that the Ombudsman found that Oranga Tamariki acted unreasonably by not investigating the report of concern after completing its intake and assessment processes.It is important that we have a clear understanding of what happened to Malachi. As others have mentioned previously there have been multiple reviews under way. There's been an OT practice review and also a Government system-wide review on what is needed and what is happening. I challenge a little bit what the previous member Nicole McKee said in terms of anybody in this Government hiding behind reviews because really what we are seeing take place here is reviews into a system that has had gaps and what we want to do is to make sure that we identify whether the system as a whole could or should have done more to prevent what happened to Malachi. That is included in the scope of the Government-wide review to be able to use the findings and the outcomes of individual agencies' internal reviews related to this case to look at what those gaps were across various spheres and to then use what we find there to strengthen the system as a whole.It's also to identify significant risk factors of child abuse including how the relevant processes for each agency or regulated service to notify and respond to potential child abuse interacts across the system—the coordination and the information sharing across various agencies. That's what the reviews that have been mentioned will undertake and will lead to in terms of change.Oranga Tamariki has accepted the Chief Ombudsman's recommendations and I know as Minister Davis has said in the House previously today that he has made it his mission to enact those changes. The system that we had inherited was already flawed. What we've been trying to do on this side of the House and the Minister's been leading is the changes that are needed to shift that direction of Oranga Tamariki. Again to a point that the previous member made in terms of numbers being down it does not show—as she was saying—that the Government is abdicating its role in terms of strengthening the system. It doesn't show that it's not working. What it shows is that change in direction in terms of what the Minister is leading in terms of OT working with whānau with communities on the ground with iwi and hapū to change things so that children don't need to come into OT's care. That's what we're seeing with the drop in numbers and that's the point that the Minister was making there as well.I want to touch on in the time that I have some of the changes that are taking place in terms of Oranga Tamariki's practice. We have heard already that OT is committed to understanding where they've fallen short. They have accepted that this should not have happened that there were gaps and they have committed to understanding what those gaps are and plugging those gaps. That's why all of the recommendations were accepted by OT. The Minister also mentioned the Future Direction Action Plan which will shape the way that OT changes the way that it operates. And that's what we are seeing as well the fact that there needs to be a fundamental and significant shift in Oranga Tamariki's approach so that what happened to Malachi doesn't happen to other children as well. That fundamental shift is under way.As the member Jan Logie said in her contribution change does take time it doesn't happen overnight but the steps to ensure that that change happens is well and truly under way. And what that change is is to ensure that tamariki are seen in the context of whakapapa and that OT as an agency and that agencies across Government understand what their safety needs are in a more holistic way. It's through those changes that OT is working to improve the way that they understand and they manage social worker capability capacity caseload complexity—all of which are issues that have been touched on in the House today—workloads the support that is provided to front-line kaimahi and the improved supervision that Minister Davis spoke about as well. OT is redesigning how it approaches reports of concerns and other assessments and is also looking at how they work better—as I mentioned previously—with whānau with iwi and hapū and ensuring that the needs of those children are central to the work that it undertakes as well.That is really the shift in the way that OT is working that the Minister's talked about and that the Minister is leading. As he has said what he's trying to do and what OT is trying to do is to empower Māori and communities to put in place the supports needed by whānau sooner rather than later. The whole point of this shift in practice is to empower and strengthen communities so that children and their needs and their aspirations and their safety is protected. It's a primary prevention point of view changing the landscape so that children don't need to come into OT's care. That's really the fundamental shift and the crux of the Minister's work in terms of changing the direction of OT and that is the shift that I mentioned that is well under way.As he has mentioned also community-led solutions are incredibly important. We see that across Government and across the work that is happening whether it's in the space of child protection or family and sexual violence more broadly or the child and youth wellbeing strategy that also—all of these pieces of work look to create an integrated system so that people and children don't fall between the cracks. What we're trying to do here whether it's through Te Puna Aonui—which was the joint venture which brings together about 10 different agencies to look at how we take various actions that sit across Government agencies and across Government to strengthen that integrated support.I'll just touch on in the time that I have left some of those changes that we are making in the broader family violence prevention space as well. For the first time we have a long-term national strategy called Te Aorerekura and I commend the work of the Minister Marama Davidson as well in terms of leading the delivery of that strategy and the design of that strategy. That is another strategy that is aimed at integrating the system and making sure that people don't fall through the cracks and that we achieve long-term change as well. Preventing violence against children and youth is at the core of the actions embedded across the Te Aorerekura strategy and that again is about transforming our systems.There are specific actions within Te Aorerekura that work towards building the specialist capability workforce that we need to work specifically with children and young people understanding what their needs are in terms of family violence prevention working again with whānau family and communities to ensure that they have the support that they need whether it's to access services or whether it's to support those who are facing family violence and acting as bystanders in that space as well. Just recently we've introduced digital tools because we knew it was highlighted through COVID that people weren't able to access the support that they needed because of the reliance on face-to-face services as well. And so now we're looking at how we expand the support so that people can access that support wherever they are whenever they are as well.All of those are steps that are taken by this Government to strengthen that integrated system to transform the way Government agencies work so that we no longer work in silos but can actually work together to put the interests of families and children at the heart of what we're doing.So just in conclusion I end where I began. What happened to Malachi was absolutely shocking. It was unacceptable. And the work that we're doing across various spheres and sectors on this side of the House is to do everything that we can to prevent such situations from occurring in the future. Thank you.