Ngaro AlfredALFRED NGARO (National): I rise to take a call in this first reading of the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Advocacy Workforce and Age Settings) Amendment Bill. I look forward to this bill coming to the Social Services Committee and the work we will do. I see that this bill is quite critically important for the roles and responsibilities the Government has. In particular this morning at our select committee we had our Minister for Social Development present and one of the questions that was asked and responded to by the officials was about the reviews that have taken place. In fact one of the officials said that since 2000 there have been 14 reviews and in each review there has been a layer of complexity and also too more bureaucracy that has been added on to the department which make it inefficient in being able to fulfil its role. I think that is quite critically important to this piece of legislation. This piece of legislation is a direct response to some of those critical issues and I will talk about them in a moment.The bill has three main objectives. The first objective inside the bill is to extend the statutory age of care and protection to those under 18 which was previously those under 17. As the previous speaker Jacinda Ardern spoke about that is something that has been talked about by this Government. It is something we are actually enacting and initiating very clearly. One of the things I think is important is that I was present when in the 50th Parliament we had a presentation from the Dingwall Trust and a number of young people who were in care. They talked about the importance for them to have the age of entitlement and eligibility extended. A number of them talked about the challenges and the difficulty they had in order to transition at the age of 17 to be able to get into some training or some employment. For them this is critically important. I hope those young people will hear that this Government is now actually taking on that responsibility and extending the age to 18.The other thing I want to say also to give comfort to others who may be listening is that although other people say 18 is maybe not enough and it could be higher up to 19 20 21—well it is clear that there is a provision and it has always been there that if the chief executive deems that actually there are critical issues of concern and vulnerability then the chief executive can extend that age. It can even be extended up to the age of 25; that provision is currently there. That has not changed. What has changed and will change under this bill is the extension of that age of statutory care to the age of 18.The second part that I think is really important inside the bill is around the voice of children being included. In August 2015 we had a report from the Children's Commissioner that was a pretty damning report if we want to be honest about it. Part of the statutory role of the Children's Commissioner is to monitor the roles of responsibility for children young persons and their families. This August in the Children's Commissioner's report called State of Care 2015: What we learnt from Child Youth and Family Dr Russell Wills wrote a number of things. One of the things inside the report that was critical was the lack of ability for the voice of children and young people to be involved in the decision making of the department in all of the decisions that actually reflect on the children themselves. That was quite clear. In fact what that said was this: give them a choice in decisions about their care and crucially allow those voices to be a part of the implementation which is quite critically important as well. I think that is quite critically important. The second provision in this bill is to ensure that the voice of children is included inside of that implementation and I think that is quite critically important.Also if one reads inside the expert panel report it says that on average there are about 60000 children who are notified to Child Youth and Family and 4900 of those children are actually in State care. What has actually come out of that is that the Minister has in her wisdom ensured we have those key stakeholders involved with the expert panel. What I want to read which goes to the second part of the objectives of the bill is what a young person wrote to the Minister in a particular letter as part of those key stakeholders. They said this: Dear Hon Anne Tolley when you read the final report over Christmas I would most like you to think about the importance of advocacy for children in State care." It goes on to talk about their own experience that being one in which they did not have the role of advocacy inside of it. The second part of the bill ensures and provides vulnerable children and young people with the support to express their views to have them heard both at the individual and system level.The last and third part of the objectives of this bill is to ensure that we enable a broader range of professionals who will also identify and meet the needs of vulnerable children. The previous speaker talked about the roles of the social worker but also too what did come out of the Children's Commissioner's report is the fact that there was an issue around the capacity and capability of social workers and the roles they play as well. We are not criticising that. I think there are issues for us to be able to ensure that the burden of responsibility is not just put on the role of the social worker. The third portion of this bill ensures that there may be a broader range of specialists who have an ability to be able to meet some of those needs. That could be in the area of for instance mental health areas of need. That could be counselling and other forms of specialist support that could be offered as well and that is the third component of the objectives of this bill.I look forward to this bill coming to our select committee and to the submissions that will be made. This is again the initiative of the Government to ensure that as part of an overhaul we look at the system to ensure that it does respond. It is fully inclusive of all the key stakeholders and I think that that is critically important. I think that what we have done in this bill and what the Minister has done is critically important.The last thing I want to say is around what comes from the expert panel in their consultation right across and it is that this part of the recommendations which have now been factored into the bill has factored in all of those key stakeholders who are involved. None have been left behind: the voice of families the voice of children the voice of young people and also too the professional perspectives that have come from the social workers and counsellors and also those who are policy makers. I think that the approach the bill is taking is thorough and I think it is well considered. I look forward to this coming to the committee. I commend this bill to the House."