Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to speak on behalf of New Zealand First but everybody will know that I'm the Minister for Children. So first of all I want to acknowledge the author of the bill Hamish Walker and I want to acknowledge the intent. It's the intent of many many many New Zealanders when we talk about children in care. There is a level of commitment to children in care in this country that we need to harness and we need to empower those in New Zealand with the same positive intent as the author of this bill to know the appropriate ways by which to harness it and use it for the benefit of these children. But I also want to acknowledge the previous speaker Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki and her level of practical reality around the real life not only of these children in care but of their parents.Their parents do not become instantly invisible when we the State have to step in for a short time a medium-term time or a long period of time to look after them to care for them as we try if at all possible to bring their family back together again. I heard that representatives from the young people of VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai—care-experienced young people—came to speak to the Social Services and Community Committee. If the select committee has listened to them on a number of occasions in the times that they have gone public with what they have asked of us as a State and the changes that we are striving to make with Oranga Tamariki it is that in the first instance they want to be with their family as long as they can be safe. They ask us to support their families to empower their parents to be better parents to be safe parents and to be able to be together with their parents and their siblings and their whānau and their whakapapa. Everybody has whakapapa regardless of their ethnic background. Everybody has a genealogy and that is all that word means—who am I connected to and how have I been connected through them to this moment in time?So while I acknowledge the author of this bill I have to say it is very unlikely that New Zealand First will support any Supplementary Order Papers that he brings forward in an attempt to bring this bill back to a wider or broader application that disempowers the parents who are still the guardians of these children. Law cannot be made on one family alone. Law cannot be made because one of us has an association with a family that wants an outcome that they have been unable to achieve. That is not good law—that is not good law—and I would caution that member. In this instance what the member has achieved is a broadening—he has alerted Oranga Tamariki to a process problem inside Oranga Tamariki around those who have guardianship rights or joint-guardianship rights around the process problem there and the ability of them to open KiwiSaver accounts for children they care about that they love. But we will not through this Parliament disempower these children or disempower their parents. I know that that member is also a parent as I am and he should understand that what he is proposing for these children and these parents is that anybody in New Zealand—anybody in New Zealand—can open an account has legal capacity to open a financial account.Lawrence Yule: Hamish isn't a parent.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Apparently the member is not a parent. I take it back. I apologise. I apologise if I have predicted his future.Simon O'Connor: It's prophetic.Simeon Brown: He will be soon!Hon TRACEY MARTIN: This is a really serious issue and I had thought that I would deal with it seriously; so I apologise to the members of the Opposition if I was too serious. I apologise to the Opposition if I actually took this seriously about the futures of these children. I thought that member was serious about the futures of these children and perhaps he would like to control his colleague in front of him while we discuss something that is incredibly serious.These are care-experienced children who have already suffered trauma. They have parents that the member is suggesting we disempower further. We cannot support any further disempowerment of parents but we do support the fact that the member has drawn to attention internal issues that need to be streamlined around Oranga Tamariki for those foster families those foster parents who have joint guardianship. We acknowledge that the member has drawn to the attention of the Parliament the fact that there are approximately 500 other care-experienced children that may benefit from his bill. I'm deeply saddened that his colleagues around him think that this is something to be laughed at or joshed about or treated with such lightness because I know that that member is actually attempting to do something for the benefit of children.So New Zealand First will support this bill in the way it is written and the way the select committee has brought it back to the House. We acknowledge him for the work he has done but we also acknowledge the children the voice of care-experienced children and what they have asked us to do for themselves and their families and we acknowledge those parents who strive every day to improve their lives so that they can continue to be the guardians of their children and can continue and gain back the guardianship and the physical capacity to care for their children again.