Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to speak on the third reading of the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Advocacy Workforce and Age Settings) Amendment Bill. In my short life I have had the good fortune of working in the public sector—a very strong public sector. Right across all of the roles I have held in the public sector and even today as a member of Parliament I often hear the Māori expression:Unuhia te rito o te harakeke kei hea te kōmako e kō? Whakatairangitia rere ki uta rere ki tai; ui mai koe ki a au he aha te mea nui o tēnei ao? Māku e kī atu: he tangata he tangata he tangata! [Remove the centre shoot of the flax and where will the bellbird be where? It will mill around fly inland fly seawards; and then you will ask me what is the greatest thing in the world? I will respond by saying: it is people it is people it is people!]It is everywhere. It is emblazoned on the walls in Work and Income centres it is the mantra of a lot of social services and how they operate—it is their mantra. I just want to take a very brief moment to explain the origin of that particular saying. An ancestor from Te Aupōuri in the far north—Mr Kelvin Davis' territory—a lady by the name of Meri Ngāroto is responsible for those words Unuhia te rito o te harakeke" ["Remove the centre shoot of the flax"] and it goes on to "he tangata he tangata he tangata!" ["it is people it is people it is people!"]. And if the members across the House who use it and will nowadays were to understand its origins I think they would second-guess whether or not they would use it. It was actually a remark made to her father who was about to offer her to a rival tribe as a peace offering knowing full well that she was unable to have children. So she expressed to him "Hūtia te rito o te harakeke"—and the rest is history.Now we are saying it is about celebrating the focus on and importance of people. But I just thought I would put that one out there because when we consider bills like this it is about the family and it is about our tamariki. It is about the most vulnerable children of the most vulnerable people in our society. In Tāmaki-makau-rau as I mentioned in the earlier stages of this bill there is a large number of Māori tamariki in Child Youth and Family care.Just recently I and the member Jan Logie met with concerned whānau social service workers and stakeholders—very recently—who wanted to express to us their concerns not just about this particular bill but about the whole system and the experiences that they have had. We are encouraged that this House is considering a change to that system. We are very encouraged by that. It is long overdue. We have got no dispute with that.Pūao-te-ata-tū I thought lit up a pathway that would have made things a heck of a lot better for our tamariki and for our families. Sadly the numbers that were presented in the Pūao-te-ata-tū book way back in the 1980s are still very similar to the numbers we have today. I think that does not speak to the failure of Pūao-te-ata-tū but of successive Governments to fully consider the recommendations of Pūao-te-ata-tū and more importantly to resource them to make sure they are implemented. Tamariki must be at the forefront and it is with some dismay that we do not support this bill. We do not support this bill. Although we supported aspects of this bill I cannot help but think this process has ankle tapped us in some respects because we agree that youth advocacy is a fantastic opportunity for tamariki and for whānau—those directly affected by legislation such as this—to have their say. Their say will be considered and for the most part implemented we hope. That is a fantastic thing. Labour has also been very clear with its support of the raising of the age of care. We have always been very clear about that and we think this is a step in the right direction. The Minister in her opening address this evening on this bill mentioned that this is one part of a larger picture. From this side of the House there is reluctance having not seen what the picture looks like. Having seen the entire picture we know what we want to achieve. We want to achieve an Aotearoa New Zealand where our tamariki are not impoverished where they are not seriously affected by a system that we believe is inherently broken. That is what we all want—I am sure about that. But it is hard to support small pieces of legislation in the hope that at some point in time in the distant future we are going to be able to step back and all of a sudden a beautiful piece of art is presented before us. That is a real concern for us.I am encouraged to hear from the member Mr Ngaro about the increased funding because that has also been an issue for the Labour Party members and this side of the House about the capacity. I spoke about Pūao-te-ata-tū and how great it was and how the failure of the system from then until now is not a reflection of the recommendations made in Pūao-te-ata-tū but the capacity—the capacity to make sure that they are implemented and carried through. So we are encouraged by the fact that Mr Ngaro talked about the increase in funding. Of course that is fantastic.Māori whānau and groups involved in this sector also had far more questions than I would argue some of the members in this House about the powers of delegation afforded to the chief executive. We understand that this particular power is given in often tricky circumstances. My colleague Poto Williams has spoken about how traumatic it can be when you remove a child from a home. Quite often it is a sledgehammer when a small nutcracker is all that is needed. No no—we accept that. On other occasions there is the need for a sledgehammer—in really bad cases. But what is the extent of it? What is the scope of it? Where does it start and where does it end? That has always been the concern that we have had and we have made that very clear throughout the process of this bill in the House.We have also even offered a Supplementary Order Paper and had it been accepted by this Government this speech might have been quite different. This speech might have had more stories about plucking the pith from the flax bush and where shall the bellbird sing. But sadly that is not the case and we will not support this bill. I have given the reasons why we will not be. I have already mentioned some of the good parts in the bill but I think the overall thrust of this is about this bit piece legislation-making that really does not present us a full picture—a full picture of what the landscape might look like for Child Youth and Family moving forward a change of name and questions about that.What else is on offer? I can only think—like other bills that have come through this House and I have spoken on; Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill is one of those—about how our whānau and how those working in this sector are actually able to digest this fully engage with it and fully understand it. It is all fair and well for us with all of the papers all of the reports doing what we do in this House but it means very little if it does not have the cut-through the traction or the support from the people who are implementing it on a day-to-day basis.Finally in conclusion I do just want to ask all of us to remember those tamariki whom sadly the system has failed. We know what their names are and at times like this we have got to reflect upon that and remind ourselves that when we make changes like this they must be significant. There has got be a huge transformation to make sure that the sad cases of the past are not revisited in the future. Nō reira kia ora tātou."