Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to make a contribution at the second reading of the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill. I just want to begin my contribution by addressing a few points made by the member who's just resumed her seat Hon Louise Upston who talked about the poor process the rushed process and she said—and I quote—It's important to note that we do get it right." I just want to remind the member that this process has resulted because that member's Government—the previous Government—brought in a law with absolutely no regard to the implications that that law would have on a number of pieces of legislation. So if that member stands up—and to her colleagues who have stood up in the House and talked about poor process—I say to them on that side of the House: practise what you preach. You should have got it right in the first place.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Don't bring me into the debate.PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: They should have got it right in the first place and then we wouldn't be here having to fix this before a law that they enacted has to come into play on 1 July. So it's just a little bit rich when members opposite stand up and talk about the lack of process around this piece of legislation.However—and I say this for those who may be watching—by and large the process that we undertook in select committee was actually robust. It was constructive and I've got to thank at this point officials because there were quite a few technical pieces to this bill. I want to thank officials for their patience in going through all those little bits with us so that we could actually fulfil our responsibilities which members on the other side of the House have alluded to.Now the decision to raise the upper age of the youth justice jurisdiction was already made; that was made by a piece of legislation that was passed in 2017. As my colleague the Hon Peeni Henare said in his contribution as well we must bear in mind that at the heart of this omnibus bill which gives full effect to that policy to expand the youth justice jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds is young offenders and the fact that all of us in this House want to make sure that the policy that relates to them is consistently applied. That is the crux of the bill that has just gone through the select committee process and that we are here debating at its second reading.As I mentioned previously there are a few technical points to this bill as well and I just want to go into the changes that were recommended by the select committee because of course this is a second reading and that's what the focus should be on. There were some specific changes to the bill that were suggested and that the select committee report includes as well just so that this policy can actually operate in the smoothest possible way. One issue that we spent quite a bit of time discussing at select committee was the technical issue where a 17-year-old has been charged with both a specified serious offence as well as a less serious offence. Actually we went through quite a few different permutations and combinations of the various types of charges the various scenarios the different ages of people the different people who might be involved in the same incident or same series of incidents as well.Often charges will be related as I mentioned to the same incident or same group of incidents and so there was a lot of thought that was put into ensuring that there was a consistent or a standard criminal justice process procedure that resulted. That reduces costs by avoiding inefficiencies within the legal system so that we don't waste court time and resources as well but also ensures that complainants and witnesses who ordinarily may need to give evidence in two separate proceedings related to the same incident would no longer need to. So as I mentioned previously lots of different permutations and combinations that we went through—transitional provisions and changes related to that which were discussed through the select committee process as well.I also just want to thank the submitters who put in some written submissions to this bill. As with many bills around Oranga Tamariki or the broader social development space many people who submit actually talk about their personal stories and their experiences. Sometimes it's a little bit outside the scope of the bill but I still want to thank those who took the time and made the effort to actually share with us stories that were very personal to them as well.Many points have been made about the technical changes to this bill. All I want to do is commend the Minister and once again the officials of Oranga Tamariki for their time and their patience with us. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker."