SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): I rise and take a call as spokesperson for the National Party on children Oranga Tamariki and Whānau Ora. I'm not as confident as the Minister was in his address that this will improve the system. Having received the bill late on Monday evening it's a bill that is 82 pages long 122 clauses and four schedules. I haven't had sufficient time to scrutinise thoroughly this bill. However should this bill progress to the select committee the scrutiny will take place there and I think the judgment will come from the stakeholders who are invested in this specialist area and field.I do know a little bit about child welfare and I do know a little bit about the review systems within Oranga Tamariki as it is now. There are issues as we know about the organisation of Oranga Tamariki. There are issues about the leadership. There are issues that have come under the scrutiny of the Family Court and also the media recently. That is part of the oversight in terms of accountability as to the functioning—or the dysfunctioning—that has occurred within our child welfare system. I acknowledge that social workers are tasked with an onerous responsibility. I acknowledge that it is a most complex and highly fraught area. However I also acknowledge that another level and layer of bureaucracy charged with some form of oversight may not be the remedy that's required for this.Having perused this bill—as I say 82 pages long—I've seen the explanatory note of the bill and I acknowledge the Minister for the contribution that's been made in the House this afternoon. However having perused this I have to draw to the attention of members in the House and the public that the fact that the Ombudsman has been given additional powers to look into deal with complaints and investigate complaints around child welfare is not something new. The Ombudsman has those powers under the Ombudsmen Act 1975. What's proposed in this bill is to make that more specific.I draw to the attention of the House and the public that the Chief Ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier—a former Family Court judge and Principal Family Court Judge with immense and considerable experience in child welfare—has the powers under the Ombudsmen Act 1975 to the extent that he has already conducted two major pieces of work supporting children in care. That is supporting tamariki and rangatahi and also investigating the removal of newborn babies.So to premise that this piece of legislation is going to empower the Ombudsman to conduct those inquires with a more honed lens I think could be questionable. However this bill does prescribe and set out in detail what is expected of the Ombudsman which effectively a person of the ilk and calibre of experience of the Judge Peter Boshier New Zealand's Chief Ombudsman has already conducted himself accordingly to do so.The bill is in two main parts. One is about the oversight in terms of monitoring of conduct within the organisation and dealing with complaints and investigating into those. The other component of the bill is the establishment of a Children and Young People's Commission. On 1 November this country welcomed to the role the new Children's Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers. I do not know whether Judge Eivers had been briefed of this bill and that this was going to come about effectively with the disestablishment of the Office of the Children's Commissioner. So with that what are the powers that the current Children's Commissioner has under this bill? As I've read it my eye has been drawn to Schedule 2 which effectively says that the Children's Commissioner is going to become just one of up to six board members on the commission. The select committee should this bill advance to them will need to seriously scrutinise and consider what the significance of the role of the Children's Commissioner will be.This is a very detailed bill. The hesitancy that we as the National Party have about this bill as I said is that it's another level and layer of bureaucracy something that the Labour Government is very proficient at. Looking at reforms of the Ministry of Health in the middle of a pandemic—and I know within this House as I stand we acknowledge that we have a crisis in terms of child abuse within our nation. We also acknowledge in the National Party that with the country being in lockdown for so long and our children and our families being in lockdown mandated that they must stay at home that is going to undoubtedly—and we're not seeing the reports that are coming out on the extent of family violence family harm and child abuse. So with the bill being introduced at this time it would be inappropriate of the National Party not to support it. So I declare that this does have the support of the National Party at the first reading and to the select committee. It will be at the select committee that there will be that examination and scrutiny of the bill as to whether this really is just another layer of bureaucratic intervention that is not necessary.As I've glanced at this I'm not diminishing in any way the importance of addressing the serious concerns we have about the system in dealing with child abuse but it's not just about the system within Oranga Tamariki. It's about the systems within our communities and how we address child abuse and that's the important factor that I will be seeking to come from this bill—it's what level of enabling and empowering our communities will address that very issue. It is all very well to again have an overlay and another piece of legislation that looks at strengthening a complaints and investigation system. The importance has to be about what is the solution and the remedy so that it reduces the level of child abuse within our nation and it also strengthens the organisation of Oranga Tamariki to deal with appropriately providing the child welfare care and protection for our children.It's acknowledged by way of background that in 2017 in response to reforms for Oranga Tamariki there was a commissioned review of independent oversight arrangements and that review found that it was important that there was a system-level advocacy. This is what this bill will attempt to address. However it also looks at diminishing the power of the specialist agency of the Children's Commissioner. So as I say Judge Eivers was appointed to the role on 1 November. It will be interesting when it comes to that engagement at the select committee and the extent of the concern that not only the Ombudsmen's office may have about this and what level of support or lack of support there is but also from the Children's Commissioner. The detail within the bill is outlined as I say in 82 pages. The proposed amendments or the proposed implementation of this new oversight system and the formation of a commission a Children and Young Peoples' Commission will have bearing on 21 other pieces of legislation. That's profound. That's significant. I would encourage the Government not to rush this through the select committee and through the House. This is too important a matter when it comes to our children's welfare and this is the Government this is the Labour Party as a Government that says it has its children's welfare at the forefront and that child poverty is an issue at the forefront.I just remind everybody that under this Government's leadership child poverty has amplified. It has intensified it has increased as has family violence—which we haven't had the reporting of the statistics put to the public for attention because everything is about COVID as a health crisis. We fundamentally have in this nation a child welfare crisis and it will be interesting if this bill will make a jot of difference to that and to handling complaints. The National Party's focus is on providing solutions on what childcare welfare really is and enabling our communities to do that.