Kuriger BarbaraORANGA TAMARIKI (PARENT'S AND GUARDIAN'S RESPONSIBILITY) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): I move That the Oranga Tamariki (Parent's and Guardian's Responsibility) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.It's a pleasure to stand up and speak to this bill tonight. We've heard a lot of words in the House tonight about people who have been in the House for short times or very long times. This is my bill that's been in the tin for the last almost three years. It was originally put in the tin by our member Mike Sabin. And Mike has had a huge amount of experience in the police and with people who are working with youth and drugs and it is a pleasure to stand here and put this bill up today. Whatever you think about any parts of this bill—and I want to go through some parts of this with you—there is a great need in this country to do something around youth and crime. And so every day we talk—[Interruption]DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! That member if he wants to stay in the House—there's no problem with interjection but we would like it to be a bit witty and a bit quieter.BARBARA KURIGER: Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Every day in the news we read about young people we read about crime we read about dairy robberies and we read about all of these things that are on our screens every night on TV. And obviously over time things have changed in our communities around parental responsibility. Part of the reason why I'm really excited about putting this bill up—and you can tell me all the problems and the challenges with it but I'm interested in fixing this problem.Last year I was lucky enough to go to a women parliamentarians conference in Iceland and during that conference we learnt about what Iceland did for their youth. Now they have a much smaller population than we do—330000—but basically they top the European table these days. The percentage of 15 and 16-year-olds who had been drunk in the previous months right from the 1990s went down from 42 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2016. And the percentage who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 percent to 7 percent and smoking cigarettes has gone from 23 percent to 3 percent. [Interruption] You can laugh and yell if you like but—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Actually could the member stop bringing the Speaker into the debate.BARBARA KURIGER: Sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. Those on the other side of the House can laugh and yell if they like but Iceland to curb the drug and I'm quoting this now To curb [the] drug abusing booze swilling youth simple measures were implemented under a plan called Youth in Iceland. Alcohol sales—Hon Kris Faafoi: It's just the youth!BARBARA KURIGER: Well if you don't listen—if the Government over there on the other side of the House ain't going to listen—we're not going to solve this issue. So kids aged 13 to 16 were placed under a 10 p.m. curfew in winter midnight in summer and each local community got together and the parents pledged. They worked with the police. And Iceland is now exporting its models to 35 cities.So we can have a look at this bill and we can say "Hey it's not quite right." The Hon David Parker came to me yesterday and he has taken some advice which he has given me which says that this may not be suitable for the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act because it may go further than what is necessary. And so I have got that document with me and I think if it does go further than necessary it would be great to be able to take this to a select committee and just figure out how far we might get this to go because we have an issue to solve in this country and I think it would be very remiss of us not to have a look at this as one of those opportunities given the success that's happened in Iceland. And if there's not exactly the right words in the bill or the right criteria well let's take it and have a look at it because under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act the advice we've been given says it enables rather than requires orders to be made in respect of parents and guardians. It could therefore be argued that the bill leaves scope for the Youth Court to make orders that are consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and indeed the judges must exercise their discretion to make orders in a way that is consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.So it's not impossible to get over this with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. All we have to do as a Parliament and as New Zealand politicians is sit down and work out some answers. And I know we talk a lot about children and we talk a lot about the social investment approach. And we call it "social investment" and I know on the other side of the House it's being called something different but we have children in this country that need us who grow into teenagers who need parents who need boundaries and who need places where they can get safety. Teenagers need boundaries and I think it's our responsibility to put some of those boundaries around teenagers. Personally I think that that's a late stage.So when we talk about our social investment as we talked about it when we were in Government with Bill English we talked about getting five to nine-year-olds and wrapping the services wrapping all the tools around them and involving their families and parents. So what this bill does is it talks about an extension of that. It talks about actually taking them when they're teenagers involving their families and parents—and most parents want to be responsible. In fact lots of parents want to be responsible but if you've got a child that's young and growing up and they don't get those boundaries and they don't get those responsibilities nothing's actually going to change by the time they're teenagers. So look we have to find a solution to this problem and this bill says—look you can argue all you like but one of the primary factors identified in studies and by the police—I'm sorry Madam Deputy Speaker—judges and the wider community working with young people is the lack of suitable parental or guardian oversight.So we have a responsibility in this Parliament to deal with that. I would urge you to take the bill to select committee and have a look at it. What has struck me in the last 3½ years that I've been in this Parliament is that we have a lot of things in common about the what and the why. We can look 20 or 30 years out and we'd probably all agree on the same goals and end goals. But we often disagree on the how and the why.So I know that over the course of the next little while members from the other side of the House are going to stand up and they're going to be having a discussion about the how and the why of this bill. I'm open about the how and the why; it's the intent of the bill that I think is important. I think we owe it to our youth to have a look at it. So with that I think we should let the discussion begin. It's my pleasure to commend this bill to the House. Thank you."