Maharey Steve: Children's Commissioner Bill — Third Reading 
Maharey Steve: Children's Commissioner Bill — Third Reading 
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Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I am sorry I was not here for the beginning of the debate to hear what was undoubtedly an outstanding oration by the Opposition spokesperson on this topic. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It was riveting! 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I am told from behind me that it was riveting and that members feel riveted as a result. This bill is important legislation as the previous speaker said. It is about children. They are vulnerable. Most of us understand that unless we put in place processes structures and policies that advance the issues around children their vulnerability will be a problem. There is a saying that children are our future. Certainly on this side of the House we would also regard children as our present. We are trying to raise dependable adults by being dependable adults ourselves at this time and providing children with the kind of nurture protection and support that will ensure they can themselves raise the next generation. 
The Commissioner for Children has the responsibility of advocating on behalf of children. This bill will allow the commissioner to exercise that responsibility by investigating decisions or recommendations that have been made around children by having a look at things that should be done but are not and by advocating for them. This is powerful legislation. 
As the House will know one of the driving forces of this Government has been to demonstrate a consistent interest in the issues surrounding children. That is why the Agenda for Children was developed. Its vision is to make Aotearoa New Zealand a great place for children—one where we look after one another. That great place for children is not something all of us would look around and see right now. We know that a lot of things that took place towards the end of the last century in particular meant that children were often placed in very difficult positions because of restructuring unemployment and change. But what we have as an aspiration this century from this Government is to ensure that one of the touchstones of success is whether we can once again say that this is a great place to be a child in and a great place to raise children. This bill will help us achieve that agenda. It is part of the Agenda for Children. We are asking ourselves how we improve the circumstances of children. 
Children themselves have been very much involved in developing our policy that led towards the changes in this bill. Part of the expanded role of the Commissioner for Children is a responsibility to develop a means of consulting with those children. I remember if I can make a quick aside here that one of the most distressing editorials I ever read was when we were developing the Agenda for Children. The  
New Zealand Herald  
asked why on earth we were consulting children. It was an extraordinary comment. I hope the paper now feels embarrassed at saying that. One of the things we found when we consulted children is they have a lot to say. They may not say what adults want to hear but they have a child’s point of view and it is usually a very well-thought-through view. It is a view we often find surprising because they come from a different perspective but it is none the less a valid view and one worth asking about. That consultation has led to important changes in this bill that were recommended to the Social Services Committee. We are very pleased that we will be enabling the commissioner to carry on consulting children and ensuring that what they have to say is heard. 
The legislation provides that the regulations that govern the commissioner will now be in a new separate statute. This strengthens the commissioner’s primary role as an advocate for children. I again want to mention the work of the Social Services Committee. It thoroughly canvassed the advocacy issue in the context of an earlier bill and provided helpful advice on how the independence and powers of the commissioner can be strengthened in order to carry out the advocacy monitoring and advice functions. 
 I want to mention once again Roger McClay who has featured a great deal in the National Party speeches on this topic. I was the Minister who worked with Roger McClay through most of his term. He was appointed by a National Government he had been a National MP but we worked with him very well. He maintained his independence during that period very well and I have no doubt that Cindy Kiro—as I keep saying to the House her name is not “Cairo” but “Kiro”—will be an outstanding commissioner as well and will be an independent one providing advice on advocacy monitoring and those general issues that she will address. I believe that the configuration provided by this bill is the best arrangement and has been informed by the committee’s in-depth consideration of the issue and the interim report of May 2000. I thank the committee for that. 
An additional avenue that this bill makes available is the ability of the commissioner to report to the Prime Minister on matters that affect children’s rights. We should remember that is a major change. I point out to Opposition members who complain about this bill—and I know they are doing so recklessly because I know that no one disagrees with it; those members are just doing what Oppositions do and that is to waste our time arguing about things that we should not be bothered arguing about—that it also adds in the ability for the commissioner to go straight to the Prime Minister about issues that affect children. That is an important development. 
Let me reflect quickly on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The commissioner now has explicit new functions that include raising awareness and understanding of children’s interests rights and welfare as well as raising understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. That convention is one of the United Nations’ core human rights instruments. It has 54 articles that set out a wide range of agreed rights to provision protection and participation. New Zealand ratified the convention in 1993. It is required to report on its progress every 5 years. The convention is included as a schedule to the bill for information and reference purposes in order to increase the general knowledge and understanding of it within this country and to show that the Government is committed to it. 
When we hosted all the other children’s commissioners around the world here in New Zealand a couple of years ago we found that not only the fact that we had one of the first if not the first commissioners for children made us a leading country; we are also leading the world because we have built into our legislation responsibility to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We received an enormous amount of praise for doing that. We can say to any criticism from the other side of the House— 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Section 59! 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can tell that Brian Donnelly is just aching to get up if Barbara Stewart will allow him to say how much he supports this particular bill. I can see him sitting very happily across the other side of the House looking a little like a political Peter Jackson this evening as he smiles across the vista of the House. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Michael Jackson? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No Peter Jackson. He has that same sort of New Zealand shape. We all know that we have a Government committed to the improvement of children’s rights and we have built that into the legislation. I think people right around the world will think that is very very important. 
I conclude by thanking everyone for being involved in this particular bill. It has been a bill that has been around for a wee while. That does not mean it has not been important to the Government. We had an early election during the passage of this bill. That meant reordering the Government’s Order Paper when we came back into the House and thereby slowing down the progress of this bill. I am absolutely delighted with the work that has gone on here. There is consensus about the importance of the commissioner about her role about her independence and about what she must be enabled to do for children. Therefore across this House we do have multi-partisan agreement that we should support this person to do all she can to lead her office to improve the rights and lives of children throughout this country. 
I close by saying that children are not just our future; they are our present. They are with us now from today and from this evening. It is our obligation to create a world for them that allows them to be the kinds of adults that we would aspire them to be. I thank everyone who has helped with this bill and I commend it to the House.