Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Madam Speaker; thank you. I stand with enthusiasm to speak on the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People's Commission Bill. This very much is a bill that reflects the Government's commitment to strengthening advocacy for all New Zealand children and young people including oversight of Oranga Tamariki and its system.The previous speaker Maureen Pugh was just questioning around it sitting within the Education Review Office. And I was curious that when the ministry was originally established in 1972 the Child Welfare Division was actually part of the Ministry of Education. So obviously it's been a natural fit for many years to sit in that place.Now this legislation and the work it does makes me think about the saying that we all love that it takes a village to raise a child. Now for this piece of legislation I think we can flip that and say it takes a child to remind us that we're part of a village. It takes a child to remind us of our responsibilities of what we need to do. And with this legislation the work being done here is very much about that.This afternoon the piece I want to focus on is the Children and Young People's Commission. Now we've had two speakers from the opposite side talk about another layer of bureaucracy that's been thrown in—that old chestnut—but it's actually for me around getting the bureaucracy right and getting it in the right places. The Hon Andrew Little as he spoke earlier talked about how currently the Office of the Children's Commissioner is spread really thinly in what it does. And this legislation with the Children and Young People's Commission was able to focus it far more in what it does and then allow the Ombudsman to focus more on what they do.Now I got involved in this space in the 1990s when it was called the Children and Young Person Service (CYPS). Obviously it's transitioned now to Oranga Tamariki but back then in the late-1990s I was involved in a mentoring programme and got involved in family group conferences that were facilitated and run through our child protection agencies—CYPS. And then I got involved in the early 2000s as a foster parent.So this is important legislation for me as I reflect back and put my hat on as a foster parent. If there were issues if there were struggles if there were challenges in dealing with a social worker in dealing with the system it was often hard to know where to negotiate and how to advocate because often it was just going up the chain—which then was Child Youth and Family if I remember rightly.Now back in 2003 a young person who was just turning 12 ended up in my care. It was a challenging situation and we had some real struggles. School didn't work out the situation was tough and I needed support. Due to some circumstances things weren't going well and I didn't have many options in terms of where I would go and what I would do in terms of the support I needed. But looking at what we're doing here having the Children and Young People's Commission it feels like a space that would fit naturally for me if I was in that position today to work with.I support this because I want to make sure that we do all we can to protect our tamariki our rangatahi and with this new commission's role it's around promoting the interests promoting the wellbeing of children and young people in New Zealand and it's around advocating for their rights. And I was really lucky to be with the Children's Commissioner a little while ago and he gave me this little book which is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and it reminds me—it sits in my desk here in Parliament—of what our responsibilities are. Article 20 says A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State." And this work is around providing that support and that protection by the State. I commend this bill to the House."