Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to speak on the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People's Commission Bill. I'd like to start my contribution this afternoon with a mihi from the beginning of the report Hāhā-uri Hāhā-tea – Māori Involvement in State Care 1950-1999 a report released today. I'll start with that:To all those children who were taken from sanctuary andthrown in to the mouth of the stateThose of you who have experienced the dislocation of yourinnocence physically psychologically and spirituallyWho have died within State CareWho have survived State CareAll of that which has happened to you without your permissionWe have reached a reckoningWe see you"In this report they've told us what we have been told for many years—that our children have not been safe in our collective care. They found that for tamariki Māori the reasons for that were structural and systemic racism across several Government organisations Government policies over successive Governments dismantling Māori communities and undermining whānau hapū and iwi structures and that Māori in care were subjected to racist and inequitable treatment including being prevented from seeing their whānau. The voices of tamariki Māori and their whānau were not heard in decisions about their care by the State. Māori were and continue to be overrepresented by up to 10 times in the State care system. It showed the impact on Māori of the Crown's lack of response to the work done in the 1980s to present a solution to this problem in the form of specific actions for the Crown to take in Pūao‑te‑ata‑tū a document that if you speak with people in our communities around the country till today they will tell us that the solutions are in that document and that future solutions must involve the Crown working in partnership with survivors iwi and Māori across State agencies. I start this speech with that context because that is what we are talking about. We are talking about the lives of our children and of whānau right around this country. We know this is a very long history and this problem is deeply embedded in our State agencies and it will not be solved quickly or easily.The Office of the Children's Commissioner more recently was raising the alarm back in 2015 saying clearly at that time that they could not be sure that children were safer in State care than what they were in the homes that were causing them harm. The public calls arose around the same time for the royal commission into abuse in State care. A key driver of that call for us to have this royal commission was survivors wanting their voices to contribute to a sense of protecting tamariki from that future to protect those children in care now and in the future from having those experiences that they'd had. Thousands of tamariki and whānau have for generations raised complaints raised the alarm suffered in silence or resisted in ways that hurt themselves or others because our system was and is causing harm. That is why this piece of legislation is so critically important because we know—and at a very deep level—we are causing harm in our so-called child protection system. We need checks and balances that will change that and that will create a future where our children can all be safe.I want to acknowledge too the voice of—I've mentioned the Office of the Children's Commissioner and that they have raised their voice and the alarm multiple times in recent years. And they have apologised to children abused in State care for their failure to protect them due to underfunding by Governments and acknowledge that this was successive Governments not specific Governments and they have called for a truly independent monitor of the care and protection system empowered when necessary to speak out publicly as a watchdog. When we know that in the recent reporting from Oranga Tamariki at the moment the reports are that 7 to 10 percent of children now are still being abused in State care that is definitely an under-report of the reality because of the challenges of reporting. If we are going to do a service to stop what has been happening for generations to stop the harm of the State we have to ensure independent and strong monitoring.But what this proposal does is it establishes a semi-independent monitoring agency making the monitoring body a departmental agency. It does prohibit the Minister of the Crown from preventing the monitor from carrying out any activities they deem necessary but it still sits within the structure of Government agencies who report after report after report have been identified as failing Māori. We know that the normal business as usual of Government agencies is proven yet so far to be unable to partner effectively with Māori unable to work with and include on a comprehensive basis the voices of disabled people unable to work with whānau to put the needs of our communities before the interest of Government the Crown and their own agency. We know that. That is an undeniable history.What we have seen is a Children's Commissioner causing trouble raising voice challenging Government for not getting it right not being able to do that effectively enough because they were under-resourced. What we're being told with this piece of legislation is: well they were stretched too thinly so we're going to take that role away from them even though in recent times they have been that voice within the system alongside Māori who have raised the alarm. It was not our Government agencies raising that alarm was it? I don't think anybody in the House could say that it was our Government agencies—any of them—raising the alarm. It was Māori communities whānau and the Office of the Children's Commissioner. The fact that they were stretched too thinly—now who's fault is that? That was the decision of successive Governments and to restrict their role I would suggest when actually the Māori advisory group set up to support Government in making the changes to Oranga Tamariki said that their first preference was for the monitoring agency to be within the Office of the Children's Commissioner. So now we're saying that we're going to be partnering and showing a new way forward but we're not going with their first choice; we're going with something that they're willing to accept and we're building-in an advisory body to that new department telling everybody that that's going to provide the model of partnership that's needed that will address that tenfold increased likelihood of tamariki Māori being in care. And yet we're not actually taking the advice of the Māori advisory group who are sitting there already. Can't say I buy it. So the Greens unfortunately will be unable to support this bill at this stage."