Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in support of this bill. We've heard some passionate speeches tonight and we've certainly heard some passionate words said around the country but I think one thing should be clear to all of us in the House: we all care about our children in this country. We all care about the future of our children in this country. Unfortunately there have been some words that I think have been said in the heat of emotion and passion that aren't actually connected to the reality of what we're doing here and what this Government is doing which is aiming to focus Oranga Tamariki on the wellbeing of children.It's absolutely important—it's vital—that children are connected to their whakapapa that they're connected to their whānau that they're connected to te ao Māori that they understand and are deeply connected to them but the reality is that's not always possible. So the reality of that is that absolutely we must focus on the wellbeing of the children of this country—that's absolutely important. I don't think there's one person in this House who would disagree that we need to focus on the wellbeing of our tamariki. That's what we're aiming to do with this. We're aiming to focus on this.So look let me just go through a few short things. So every child deserves the same level of care and protection—every child. The focus on their individual needs and their safety and wellbeing needs to be put first. Culture whakapapa whānau te ao Māori connection—critical. Absolutely critical—I don't disagree with that.While this bill repeals references to cultural consideration in section 7AA it does not remove existing provisions in other parts of the Act which require decision makers to consider cultural factors in care decisions. So they will still be required to consider cultural factors in care decisions—so just be really clear about that. It's absolutely important.This does not prevent Oranga Tamariki from retaining current strategic partnerships—it does not take that away—or from entering into new partnerships with iwi with hapū and Māori organisations. It does not take that away from Oranga Tamariki. So that is absolutely important for Oranga Tamariki and I have total confidence that Oranga Tamariki will be doing that. They will be doing that—I'm absolutely confident they will be doing that and I'm making it very clear in this speech that it is an expectation that they will be doing that. So this will not be taking that away—that is absolutely clear.The Independent Children's Monitor will still report on the strategic partnerships that Oranga Tamariki has with iwi and Māori organisations as part of their broader reporting on outcomes for Māori children young people and their whānau so that will still be happening.Now look if we just go back a little bit into the history of this there was a Newsroom article back in 2019 which highlighted uplifts of Māori children and that set a big part of this conversation and absolutely without due cause. But I don't know whether everyone in this House has seen a more recent article from Newsroom as well—Restored: the Newsroom story the Crown and court didn't want you to see – 'Two wrongs don't make a right' " about a reverse uplift. So if I just read a little bit from this: "In June 2019 the practice of uplifting babies was exposed in a Newsroom Investigates video. The documentary which showed … behind the scenes when a young Māori mother from Hastings refused to hand over her newborn would force a huge shift in Oranga Tamariki's policies and operations."—that's a good thing—"The five official inquiries that followed our investigation slammed the agency's approach to removing babies from their mothers and the systemic racism behind it: it was revealed tamariki Māori accounted for 70 percent of children in state care and that Māori babies were being taken into custody at a rate five times that of non-Māori."—something none of us want to see—"Then on July 1 2019 section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act came into force. The new legislation laid out the ways in which the state needs to uphold the right of tamariki Māori to be connected to their culture and whakapapa."—something we all agree on—"The combined effect was immediate. With the Hastings uplift backlash building Newsroom understands Oranga Tamariki requested an audit to find out where uplifted Māori children had been sent looking specifically at non-kin carers. Essentially they were finding out exactly where the Māori kids were and we were asked to find out the ethnicity of their carers and the status of their placements. That's why they're on spreadsheets in OT offices up and down the country" an OT social worker told Newsroom. Oranga Tamariki it seems were in a scramble to self-correct."Then the article goes into a very sad story of where children have been put into what they were told was their forever home and then they were taken away from that home. So let's be clear: we want to protect our children we want them to be connected to their whakapapa and their whānau and we support this bill."