Bakshi Kanwaljit SinghKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to speak and participate in the first reading of the Oranga Tamariki (Parent's and Guardian's Responsibility) Amendment Bill introduced by Barbara Kuriger a good friend of mine. I congratulate her that her bill has been drawn and is going to the first reading. It's my pleasure to support it and I would like to share a few things.I would like to start with one of the news items which I read today. It says that Police are hunting for an Auckland teenager believed to be responsible for a … 'crimewave' while on bail and facing a raft of serious charges including kidnapping and assault." We are talking about a teenager. We see now and then teenagers and youth attacking hard-working people working at dairies petrol stations or takeaways. That is not what we expect our youth to do. If we have got good parenting for these children they won't be going out and getting involved in crime. We don't want them to be responsible for some of the crimes that are heinous because the trauma of which these workers go through after they are attacked and beaten up—I have seen so many people that they are traumatised for a long long time.I was in Hamilton last weekend where there were about 70 shopkeepers together discussing why it is happening. One of the reasons we can see is that the parents are not looking after some of these children who get deviated from their track. And that is what this bill is asking: that the parents and the guardians should be responsible for a good upbringing of these children. The children are the future of this country not only the country but for us also. We have to look after them.There is a simple example we can see. If we plant a plant and if we don't look after it it will not grow. There are more chances that it will die if we will not water that plant—same way with the children. If we don't give them proper training proper education and proper cultural education then they are going to deviate. We have seen in many cases—I'll give another example: yesterday when I was coming to Wellington I met a young girl a Pacific Islander of Samoan origin and she was so much cultured into her culture that it was a pleasure talking to her. Her parents have given her a good education. She came all the way from the North Shore to work at the airport—I think her age would be around 18 or 20—and she was working as an assistant manager at a shop. That shows that if we properly give education to our children or upbringing of the family values then they can too be a good citizen of this country.This bill takes a step in the right direction by making a parent or a guardian accountable for their child's offending where it is linked to a lack of supervision. There are a number of factors influencing a young person's decision to offend. One of the primary factors identified in a study by the police judges and other wider communities working with young people is a lack of suitable parental or guardian oversight. If we make sure that the children are back home before it gets dark and the family sits together has dinner together and discusses all the things that happened during the day—that brings a lot of difference in their attitude. That is what I have seen in my own family. My children come home we have dinner together and it is a good upbringing for these kids. I am hoping that when they are grown up they will give the same kind of care to their children so that they can be good citizens of this country. I commend this bill to the House."