Bond RiaRIA BOND (NZ First): I am kind of glad that I have had some time since my colleague Ron Mark got up and spoke because it has given me a chance to dial down my heart and also dial down my anger at what I have heard in some comments and feedback when members have taken their calls on this side of the Chamber. I think that as a former foster child I can legitimately get up here and stand and talk about aspects of this bill that yes still remain ambiguous. The words should" "could" and "would" are not in my eyes actually sustainable in the sense of our having a clear idea of exactly how the children who need this care are going to be looked after. So I support my fellow colleague Darroch Ball who earlier in his first call identified and outlined to Minister Tolley that there are areas in this bill that are definitely ambiguous. Probably what I want to talk about—and what dialled my heart up actually—is putting children first and having the iwi the whānau and the hapū being the first choice of preference that those children go back to. In the time since this bill was first read in the House I was lucky enough to go along to the Māori women's council and actually talk about this very concept. With the short time that I got to speak to it I explained about the fact that yes I am a former child who lived in State care. From the age of 3 I was put into foster homes. The reason why I was put into foster homes is that the level of violence in my family was shocking. It was shocking. I do not think any member in this House would know what it is like to hide in your mother's closet while you hear her being punched like a punching bag— Marama Davidson: Oh that's a rough assumption actually. RIA BOND: —and to get up in the morning and find her teeth. It is not an assumption—it happened. So what I am saying is that it is all very well to get out there and give your opinion but you do not actually know what happens to these children and yet you try to push and say that they belong with their iwi and their whānau. If they have been the abusers that child does not deserve to be revictimised and put back within the iwi the hapū and the whānau. I know of many children from my generation who are Māori and who actually have not had a chance to speak to this bill where their voices have been lost. They would be speaking in contrast to what other members in the Green Party and the Māori Party have actually said within this debate. Children want the time to get past the abuse. They do not want to be thrust back into their family. They do not want to see the very behaviour that can in some cases—not all cases—be seen as acceptable as part of the lifestyle and part of growing up. Māori children who have been abused by their family members by their extended family and by their community around them do not want to go back into those very homes and whānau that have abused them in the first place and that is something that has to be respected. It is something that I do not think many people can actually get up and talk to. Marama Davidson: That's an assumption Ria. RIA BOND: This bill says—it is not an assumption. Everything that you have tried to pull comes back to the fact that if they do not go back to iwi then this bill is racist. Well that is rubbish. That is absolute rubbish. [Interruption] They are your words—they are your words which you were reading in the House. They are your words. What I am saying is this: it is all very well for some members in the House to criticise and say that children should not go to non-iwi families but I actually beg to differ. Children need the right to be heard. They need the right to make sure that they can decide and work with adults and that they have the choice to go to a safe home. I have had non-Māori foster care parents and I really enjoyed the upbringing that they gave me for the very short time that I had that. I valued that and I treasured it. It is just a shame that I cannot find them today to thank them for taking care of me when my family my immediate hapū and my uncles and my aunties did not have the skills to look after me. I was not ready to go back into the punching ring and see what was going on. Yes I am a third-generation child of the system that still sees that happen today. That is what is wrong. That is what is wrong. When the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act came into place in 1989—I remember it vividly. I remember it because it was pioneered as being the very Act that was going to help children like me just when I was coming out of that foster care system. I did not rely on my family—I could not. They were not able to do anything that I needed in order to reconnect back with my tikanga. I am in my—I think actually I will not say my age. Six years ago I went back to my marae. That is when I was ready not when it was dictated to me by adults and by people who did not understand the victimisation of what I went through as a young Māori child when my culture actually was the very culture that I did not want to belong to. That was my choice made from what I saw. I think it is really important that it is established that just because you are Māori it does not mean that you have to be placed back within your iwi because that is not right. Minister Tolley it is not right."