Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I just say I really enjoyed that contribution. It put me in mind of the Rt Hon Rob Muldoon. The Rt Hon Rob Muldoon was on stage—remember he did a stage play? The content was rubbish but the animation was brilliant. It was really entertaining. So thank you very much to the Hon Judith Collins. It's brilliant—really good. This morning I was at Estimates with the Social Services and Community Committee and I want to spend my contribution here talking about Oranga Tamariki. The expert advisory panel in 2015 put in place by the previous Government produced a report that said we must 100 percent change the way we deliver child protection services in this country and they were right. In that report they said that in the 2019-20 year there would need to be over a billion dollars invested in Oranga Tamariki so that it could deliver the services in the way that they needed to to change the game for children who needed us in New Zealand. In the Wellbeing Budget this Government has invested $1.1 billion. We have kept the commitment of the previous Government. We have kept the pathway because we know that it is too important to play politics with these children and these families. We know that to be true.So I acknowledge the select committee this morning. It was interactive as it should be. They probed they asked questions they wanted information and they held myself and the chief executive to account. But it was a respectful debate. It was a debate that focused on the children and are we doing what we need to do for the children.But where is that $1.1 billion going? There are lots of things going on because the system itself was 100-percent broken. The way I describe it is that with the advent of Oranga Tamariki we have been shifting from a child crisis service to a child protection service. We've never had a child protection service in this country before. So $31.6 million from the Wellbeing Budget is actually going to be invested in intensive intervention. What is intensive intervention? We have too many children in our care because we are not walking alongside our families both at an early stage—and there's $26.7 million for early intervention support for our NGO and iwi and Māori organisation partners to try and move in earlier to support families. The increases to Whānau Ora will also go some way towards putting in place early intervention systems where those who are closest to those families those who have relationships with those families—because let's get real nobody wants Oranga Tamariki to show up at their door. We're the last people they want to see. But let's also be clear: Oranga Tamariki is not the problem; Oranga Tamariki is part of the solution. There will always need to be a service like Oranga Tamariki because there will always be orphans. There will always be unsupported children. There will always be circumstances—the multiple ways that children come into Oranga Tamariki's care.I also want to make sure that people understand that when we talk about children in our care there are some children who are technically in the care of the chief executive but they are still living with their family. They are still with their parents and they are being supported by our NGO partners or sometimes directly by Oranga Tamariki staff. Then we have another group of children that are technically in the care of the chief executive but they are in extended family—grandparents raising grandchildren aunts uncles—who have stepped forward. Every child who is not living with their mother or father is technically a care-experienced child; they are in somebody else's care. So there are multiple ways that the 6400 children that are currently in the care of Oranga Tamariki are being supported. The majority are being supported with family and whānau.I also want to make a point that there's $140 million to extend the youth justice system. We have the committee stage of the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill coming through later this evening. Now not only is that about making sure that we have the capacity to take 17-year-olds into the youth justice system it is to do better by them. That goes to some of the strategic partnerships that we have created directly with iwi because we have a responsibility to work better for Māori to be better for Māori. This is as a nation not just Oranga Tamariki. But Oranga Tamariki has section 7AA in its legislation which is a responsibility upon the chief executive that no other chief executive has when it comes to Māori and Oranga Tamariki takes that responsibility incredibly seriously.So for example we have three strategic alliances at the moment with Ngāpuhi Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui. In the signing that I went to recently the Waikato-Tainui chief executive themself has said that in the six months of the partnership building up to that signing over 200 Waikato-Tainui children did not come into the State's care—did not. That is where we need to go as a nation. When Māori say Give us back our children." we agree with them. We all need to work together to keep the children safe. With these strategic alliances with these partnerships as we walk forward with the money that this Budget has provided for us we will start to create the future that we jointly want for our children.But with Ngāpuhi for example up in the north another example of a strategic alliance which has now won international recognition was where Oranga Tamariki went out and called for expressions of interest in creating a new remand facility. Ngāpuhi came to see us and said "We want to do this but we don't want to do it your way." Oranga Tamariki said "Fine what's your idea?" And so they put their idea out on the table and Oranga Tamariki said "Let's have a go." So 30 Ngāpuhi families were trained up so that when young people had to be remanded they were remanded to a home—somebody's home. They were cared for and mentored. So far—considering that most people don't know that that happened—it's been incredibly successful. It is a risk but we have to take a risk; not with people's lives not with children's lives not with babies' lives but we have to take a risk inside this system to—occasionally something bad will happen something might go wrong but we cannot continue the risk-averse way that we were funding and providing what was a child crisis service. This Budget has given us the capacity to do what we needed to do.I also want to just focus on that 60 to 70 percent of the children in Oranga Tamariki's care are Māori. Nobody can deny those percentages but I want to make this clear: 98.5 percent of Māori children in New Zealand are living and loved and cared for and supported by their mum and their dad; 98.5 percent of Māori children in this country are not in Oranga Tamariki's care. We must ensure that when we have this conversation we don't start to tar every single Māori child with some negativity because we have 1.5 percent of Māori children in this country who do need our support. Of that 1.5 percent of Māori children 80 percent of them are either with their family or with extended whānau. We must ensure that when we have these conversations we don't generalise and make sure that everybody is the same through this process.I need to set down obviously that there is a lot—a lot—in this Budget for Oranga Tamariki and these children but I want to close with the $153.7 million that has been put into transitions and creating a transition service. I don't know about the rest of this House but I know that the last time I needed to go home to my mum and dad and to their back room I was about 27 years old. To be told at the age of 18 now "That's it it's over. You're out on your own." is too soon—it is too soon and we recognise that. The previous Government recognised that. So what that money is going to be able to do is to actually support those children and the carers who have built a trusting relationship to stay together up to the age of 21. And there will be an advice and support service that will be set up so that they can seek that advice and still get support up to the age of 25.So if they don't know how to do their bond forms or if something comes up like StudyLink or just another drama they have somebody to call because everybody needs somebody to call. Out of our youth justice systems we're going to create mentors. We're going to make sure that there is a person that will walk alongside them—up until the age of 25 at least. This is what it's about. That $153.7 million is about building relationships so that the young people that are in Oranga Tamariki's care have the support that the rest of us have. Every other child has somebody that stands behind them and says "We're here for you. We will be here for you and if you need to look back in a moment and ask for our help we will provide it." Kia ora Mr Speaker."