Salesa JennyORANGA TAMARIKI AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 9 December.HARETE HIPANGO (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. As has been indicated this is the third reading of the Oranga Tamariki—the first reading of the Oranga Tamariki Amendment Bill. It is the first reading but undoubtedly the Government has the numbers as it always does and with this being a Government bill it is indicative that it will go to a third reading eventually. As the National Party spokesperson for children Oranga Tamariki I have those caps in one hand and in the other hand I have my Whānau Ora and Māori development caps. When I rise to speak I talk about the interconnectivity of these relationships and the relationships I talk about are not just the portfolios but the people who work in this sector. Before coming into the House this morning there were the officials from Oranga Tamariki and the chief executive Chappie Te Kani with his officials who appeared before the Social Services and Community Committee. I acknowledged and I acknowledge again today in the House the importance of the work that is provided by Oranga Tamariki formerly Child Youth and Family services and the people who work in that sector importantly—about the care the protection and the welfare of our children. That's what this bill is about. It is an amendment bill and this amendment is to the principal Act which is the Oranga Tamariki Act of 1989—the Children's and Young People's Well-being Act 1989. Now I'll give a bit of context before I address the details of the amendment bill itself and the context is to highlight that as I indicated before the select committee—and acknowledging Oranga Tamariki and all of the kaimahi the workers in that speciality field in looking after our children and the relationships that are important to be had between the State also with our communities. And bearing in mind that the majority of children who come into care regrettably—there are a number of non-Māori children—are predominantly Māori. And the importance of the relationships into our whānau our hapū and our iwi communities but also the importance of relationships with our non-Māori communities. The principal Act giving context about the nature the scope the complexity and the demands associated with child welfare and legislation—the principal Act of 1989 has 469 sections it has 11 parts and it has three schedules. That in itself indicates the scale the size the complexity and the specialist nature of social work practice and the law. Now this amendment bill is one that is comprised of 40 substantive amendments. Three of those are to do with the title and the purpose of the Act. So as I say by way of introduction the principal Act and the amendment bill itself comprised of 40 amendments is signalling the substantive complex nature in a very specialised area of law in terms of navigating interpreting and application in social work practice. Now I say that because it's very difficult for a person who hasn't worked in this field to appreciate the nature and the demands of what's imposed not only by the law but the imposition of that in terms of how that relays out into practice. So the six minutes that I have left now I'm going to turn to the bill itself the amendment bill itself and in saying that it is—I'm always cognisant of context. So I'm going to give some overlay an overview too in terms of the nature and the demand of the work that Oranga Tamariki has to deal with. In its annual report of 2021—this indicates the scale of the issues of concern around child abuse—the reports of concern that's child abuse and child welfare some 77953. That's for the year 2020 to 2021. The referrals for assessment of investigation are 4250. The children who've been taken into care for that period has reduced significantly by approximately 59 percent down to 822 and family group conferences which are the precursors for a child being taken into formal State welfare status—the number of family group conferences (FGCs) which is that level of engagement and connectivity between the agency or Oranga Tamariki with the communities are some 8909 FGCs. So that just gives the scale the complexity and also the pressures that are there on the agency.The Oranga Tamariki Amendment Bill came to the attention of the National Party about one and a half weeks ago. I've just outlined the complexity and the scale and the size of this legislation. The amendments that are proposed are some 44 clauses with 40 substantive amendments there. There are approximately by way of those that have been identified in the legislative statement—there are a number of what's called minor and technical changes to the bill and they number approximately 36. There are three significant parts to the amendment bill and those significant parts deal with—the first one is the subsequent child legislation and it has been proposed in this amendment bill for what's called a partial repeal of that subsequent child provision. I will come back to that.The second part of it is the repeal of what's called section 66D within the principal Act dealing with data set provision—the information that's required to be collected by Oranga Tamariki and other agencies that's accumulated and amalgamated into a data set to be able to identify to those working in the child welfare sector. It imposes on them quite detailed and huge burdensome administrative requirements of compliance. That's the second part of this amendment bill. The third part as I said are those minor and technical amendments.I've made substantive notes here and this is going to go before the select committee and it will require substantive input from interested parties. Those interested parties to date have been by way of other agencies and entities that have provided reports over the last two to three years which have come before Oranga Tamariki. Those are reports from the Ombudsman's office from the Office of the Children's Commissioner by way of two reports from Whānau Ora commissioning agency and also an internal examination or investigation by Oranga Tamariki itself about the uplift of babies soon after birth and that came to prominence within our local media about a year ago. There's also been a Waitangi Tribunal hearing in relation to the concerns associated with the nature of Oranga Tamariki's operations. As a result of those investigations there've been 25 recommendations made by the ministerial Māori advisory committee. Those 25 recommendations in summary identify a complete overhaul that's required of Oranga Tamariki. The subsequent child provisions: essentially in 2016 the National Party introduced an automatic and a mandatory—which means that it's required on the agency Oranga Tamariki and the social workers for any child that's born after an earlier child who's been taken into permanent care from the family the parent that subsequent child must be the subject of oversight. That's the mandatory nature. And it's been deemed in this overview by the Minister that this subsequent child provision needs to be repealed. The part to be repealed is that it's removed the onus and the burden of responsibility not so much on the parent—and it's been framed that way in the papers before the House. The onus and burden of responsibility is actually on the social worker under the provision of sections 18A through to 18D. The burden of responsibility is on the social worker and the agency to provide that wraparound support for any subsequent child who is born to a parent whose earlier child has been taken into care. It's been described that there is a reverse of onus on the parent to do it. The reverse of onus is the responsibility of the State to provide that monitoring and to check that the child will be safe with that parent. I've quickly run out of time. The National Party caucus at this time does not support this bill. It goes to select committee—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! The member's time is up.