Upston Louise; Rurawhe AdrianHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and I have to say when I came down to the House at 4.30 today to contribute to the first reading of the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill I thought it was going to be quite straightforward. I thought it was going to be quite straightforward because this is a bill that is the third part of a suite of legislation that was ostensibly designed under the previous Government and I thought this was a formality. That was of course until the Minister in charge of the bill Tracey Martin issued an instruction to the Social Services and Community Committee that meant the report back was the 27 May 2019 which is less than two months and for those that have just tuned in—Hon Member: Really? How long?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Less than two months. The normal time frame is four to six months. As I said this is a piece of legislation that is the third in a suite of legislation. We've already done two pieces of legislation right through all stages—the second piece of legislation was passed in July 2017. So yes there's been a change of Government and the Government knew that this legislation was required. Omnibus legislation was required and they've known about that the whole time.I want to in this debate on the instruction to the select committee just echo some of the words that Labour and MPs have used in this debate and the Minister for Children and the Minister for Youth because it's somewhat confusing. There is first of all no disagreement about the intent and purpose of this bill. There is no disagreement on the fact that it needs to be in place by 1 July. That's been known for quite some time. The dispute is over why the Government is bringing it today and why the Government has issued an instruction to the select committee for a shortened report back—less than two months—when the normal process is four to six months.I want to talk about why that is important. This is a bill about some of our most vulnerable children. It is the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill and one of the things that was set up and supported by this Government—and I want to applaud them for that—is the inclusion of the young people's voice. Members on that side said absolutely it affects young people and their voices need to be heard.So one of the submitters that I'm suggesting will want to have a decent amount of time to prepare a submission to come before the select committee and to ensure that this Parliament gets it right is VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai. They will want to ensure—on behalf of young people in State care; young people who might be before or have experienced the youth justice system—that this Parliament gets it right.We've heard from the other side that it's just a technical piece of legislation. Well let me explain what that technical piece of legislation does. It amends twelve pieces of legislation—twelve pieces of legislation that are very important in respect of vulnerable young New Zealanders. This is a Government that puts children at the heart of everything they do and yet this piece of legislation clearly wasn't sufficient of a priority to make sure that the full process could take place for those young people directly affected by this legislation and the 12 pieces of legislation that it affects: the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 the Bail Act the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act the Children's Commissioner Act the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Act the Criminal Procedure Act the Prisoners' and Victims' Claims Act the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act the Sentencing Act the Victims' Orders Against Violent Offenders Act the Victims' Rights Act and the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Regulations 2004. Every single one of those pieces of legislation needs to be amended to ensure it lines up with the intention of this legislation.But I want to come to that policy intention because it was interesting—a number of members on that side of the House referred to the fact that a couple of changes were necessary minor changes were necessary because of corrections needed to the urgent interim orders and yet several members including the Minister who took the final call Peeni Henare then said it was an opportunity to make sure the legislation fit with the current Government's direction. So is he telling us that there's also policy changes in this piece of legislation? Are there policy changes hidden in this legislation that we're not sure about yet?Hon Scott Simpson: Sounds like it.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Well it absolutely sounds like it. It sounds like the Government's taking the opportunity to make policy changes and that's their right. That is absolutely their right as the Government but what is not their right is to strip the ability of New Zealanders including vulnerable young New Zealanders to have their say in the select committee. Those that provide services provide residential care provide rehabilitation provide mental health counselling and provide a whole range of services to these vulnerable young New Zealanders will have less of an opportunity to scrutinise this legislation and make sure that collectively as a Parliament we get it right which is our duty. It's even more of a duty to allow that process to happen when there is unanimous support for the legislation. I'm absolutely staggered that it took until 4.30 today when Minister Martin first started speaking in this first reading on the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill for her to drop the minor bomb of yet another shortened report-back instruction to a select committee. It has happened more often than not.So what's the reason? Well the only reason that I can envisage is that the Government hadn't got organised early enough hadn't made Oranga Tamariki and this legislation and the 1 July implementation date sufficient of a priority to enable that to happen. So they clearly don't care about those young people and their voices and their input or the services of the many thousands of New Zealanders that do incredibly hard work at the front line supporting these young people assisting them to ensure they get on a different track for the rest of their lives. They're clearly not interested in hearing what they have to say and it'll be particularly interesting if as suspected there are policy changes just kind of hidden in this omnibus bill that's supposedly just technical and because it's just technical nobody cares about it nobody needs to scrutinise it. Well I have news for the Government: that's not how Parliament works. Parliament works—Hon Scott Simpson: Policy on the hoof.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Policy on the hoof." my colleague says. Well that's what we're about to find out. But actually in terms of the public and the scrutiny of the select committee process that opportunity is cut right back.I know it's a sensitive thing to say but I'm going to put it on the record because one of the Labour members suggested the only reason that this is a shortened report back was because of the tragedy in Christchurch. That is not true. This change takes effect from 1 July. As I said the second piece of legislation in this tranche of significant reforms for our young people has already occurred and that occurred in July 2017. There has been ample time for the Government to deal with this and I find it absolutely abhorrent that a Labour MP—and I won't name her because I don't think that needs to be said. I find it absolutely abhorrent that the suggestion was that the only reason for this delay and the shortened report back was because of Christchurch—I find that abhorrent.The normal process is four to six weeks. Even with four to six weeks depending on the number of submitters that's a tall order for the select committee to do their scrutiny well and to enable the opportunity for submitters to provide their views. Sometimes the select committee members need to go back to them to ask more questions. The officials have rounds and rounds and rounds of questions because there is an absolute 110 percent commitment from this side of the House that we get this legislation right—1 July and it is absolutely critical for those young New Zealanders. There are over 6000 of them in State care. This particular one is focusing on the policies and procedures of those that are in the youth justice jurisdiction and as a former Minister of Corrections I know that is a particularly vulnerable and challenged group of young New Zealanders and they deserve our support. They deserve that this Parliament takes the time and energy to get it right.I don't know if the Government's made policy changes. Several of the speakers have said that apparently the two fixes from the previous legislation that they need to correct were wrong. Actually then they've gone on to say that this is an opportunity in the legislation to ensure alignment with the current Government's direction and priorities. So that very much sounds to me as if there is policy change in there that we think—and you know if we—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time's expired."