Radhakrishnan PriyancaHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment) on behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment: I move That the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System Bill and the Children and Young People's Commission Bill be now read a third time.This speech was written by the Hon Carmel Sepuloni who unfortunately cannot be here today so I am delivering it on her behalf.It's been a long journey to get us here but today we are finally able to put in legislation a stronger more effective system of oversight to protect our children and young people. I want to start by thanking all of the children and young people who have provided input into this throughout the process. I want to thank our stakeholders for their strong advocacy and for working together to make changes that have improved the bills. To our officials for working over several years to develop this legislation thank you all. To our select committee I want to thank them for their time and hard work on this legislation. This journey started back in 2017 and really kicked off after the Beatie report in 2018 highlighted how inadequate our system of oversight really was. There wasn't enough accountability. Our children and young people didn't know where to go for help and it needed fixing. Since then we sought advice from stakeholders and from across Government. A number of huis were held across the country and we heard from children young people and whānau what the issues were and what they needed in an oversight system. As a Government we traversed a significant number of options. Some of the proposals in the bills are different to what we have now and some are different to what stakeholders want. But what I do know is that we are all working towards the same goal. We all want our children and young people to be safe and well and cared for and these bills will help us achieve that.In order for us to have an effective oversight system there are several things we need. Firstly we need a loud and strong advocate not afraid to call out Government and the systems we have in place; an advocate that will have the flexibility diversity and mana to genuinely speak for our children and young people. The Children and Young People's Commission Bill makes this happen by establishing the Children and Young People's Commission. Some stakeholders have raised concerns about this and that it could diminish the power of the Children's Commissioner but this is simply not the case. This bill adds to the power of the Children's Commissioner so that they have more voices at the table. The commission will be required to have input from a kaupapa Māori perspective and there will be the opportunity for other voices to have a seat at the table like Pacific and disabilities as well as care-experienced young people themselves. However we heard the sector when they said that we needed to retain a Chief Children's Commissioner and that's what we've done. This bill further adds to their power by increasing the information-access powers they have in order to inquire into system-wide issues. I am looking forward to seeing a more diverse and empowered Children and Young People's Commission.The second component of an effective oversight system is an accessible and dynamic complaints system. We heard from children and young people that they didn't know where to take their complaints. The Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System Bill places a requirement on the Ombudsman to ensure that complaints processes are visible and accessible for children and young people and their families whānau hapū and iwi. On top of that children and young people also said the complaints process needs to be timely and action-oriented for children and young people to have confidence and trust in them and to use them. This bill enables the Ombudsman to undertake preliminary inquiries to ensure that matters are able to be resolved at the earliest opportunity possible as a means of supporting timely processes for children and young people.Finally we need an independent monitor to oversee the system and ensure that the horrors of abuse that occurred in our history never happen again. This bill makes it a legal requirement for the monitor to act independently and makes it unlawful for the Government or anyone else to interfere with their monitoring. We know some stakeholders want the monitoring to be in a Crown entity and in particular to be with the Children's Commissioner. However we heard during hui across the country concerns about monitoring sitting in conflict with advocacy. The monitor will provide objective and impartial information to Parliament the public and to Ministers on the performance of the system to support decisions that improve performance of the Oranga Tamariki system; whereas the role of the advocate is to question whether the settings are right in the first place. In response to consultation on the long-term home of the monitor the Office of the Children's Commission even stated—and I quote—We do however agree that the advocacy function may conflict with the policy intent as currently stated to be an adviser to the Minister."Underpinning these three elements we need a foundation of upholding Te Tiriti and the wellbeing and inputs of our tamariki and a rangatahi. The bills' Treaty provisions were carefully crafted with advice from Te Kāhui who supported the Ministry of Social Development's consultation with Māori across the country. The bills create obligations on the oversight bodies to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The specific clauses in the bills directly emerged from key Māori stakeholders who called for specific obligations to be placed on the oversight bodies rather than broad Treaty of Waitangi clauses that can be open to interpretation and run the risk of diluting the obligations on agencies.The rights and voices of children and young people have underscored the development of the bills. Not only have the insights of children and young people shaped specific policies giving practical effect to these concepts has been an objective in the development of the bills. Through our Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) we included even more specific more explicit provisions following discussions with stakeholders by providing for the best interests in participation of children and young people. We also supported the change put forward by the Greens in their SOP to ensure the voices of children and young people are a part of the work of the independent monitor and I want to thank them for putting the suggestion forward.On top of that we also heard from our young people. I want to explicitly thank VOYCE for their contribution here that waiting five years before a review is required to start is a long time in the life of a child and that's why we reduced this three years so that we can review the system and make changes if needed sooner.I know that those on the other side of the House don't support these bills but I want to say to them that our children and young people shouldn't have to wait any longer for a proper oversight system. These bills will put in place a system that will help ensure that we can avoid the errors of the past and make a positive difference for our children and young people.Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table this legislative statement.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Leave is requested for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is none.Harete Hipango: Mr Speaker?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Just you'd need to present the legislative statement. Can the Minister just—thank you. You just need to request—"I present a legislative statement on the two bills." Then it's done properly.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: I present this legislative statement.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): On? Can you just do the whole thing; sorry.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: For the third reading of the—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): On the Oversight of the Oranga—Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: —on the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System Bill and the Children and Young People's Commission Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Thank you. Those legislative statements are published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. The question is that the motion be agreed to."