Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It is rather unusual for me to be standing and speaking on the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People's Commission Bill because I don't actually sit on the Social Services and Community Committee nor did I sit on it during the hearings. Having said that it is an absolute pleasure to have been given the opportunity to speak about how wrong this bill really is. As members of Parliament we often get terrible stories of people who have been abused as children or who have actually been in the system of Government services like Oranga Tamariki that have the oversight of children who are on their own with no guardians for example. When children come into the system it is often a given that they have the worst possible outcome because Government does not do the function of carer very well. When a Government decides to overhaul a system that is broken or is not functioning properly I would have thought that the people who have not been served properly are the very people it should have consulted with and I haven't participated in the select committee but from the speeches that I've heard so far in this House it is very very clear that this Government has an agenda. Those members are not interested in what the children have to say nor are they interested in the views of the people who submitted to the select committee or the views of the Opposition because they are arrogant in thinking that the Labour Government knows what's best for everyone in this country. Harete Hipango: Do as I say not as I do." MELISSA LEE: Exactly right Ms Harete Hipango. I think it was the Prime Minister in her recent Harvard commencement address who said—and I quote her—"Democracy can be fragile. This imperfect but precious way that we organise ourselves that has been created to give equal voice to the weak and to the strong that is designed to help derive consensus—it is fragile." Those are the very words of the Prime Minister of this country who apparently cares about the children of our nation and this is the bill that that Government brings to this House to reduce the mandate of the Children's Commissioner. Not only is the Children's Commissioner the one person who should have more power to give voice to our children but that commissioner is now only one of six. Tell me does that mean that that power is reduced? It's being watered down in my opinion. I may not know the system very well because I haven't really been involved in the bill from the beginning and haven't even heard the submissions but it really really makes me very upset. There are parents on that side of the House. I would urge the Labour members who are parents who care about their children to look at the children who do not have parents and who rely on the State to look after them and provide them with the protection and safety that they so deserve. Someone once said "Look into the eyes of the children and you see the future of the nation". What do we see in the children who have been abandoned or who have been abused? We still see hope. Let's actually not abandon their hope by doing bills like this. This bill should be dumped and the Labour Government should be ashamed of bringing this bill to the House. Those members should be hanging their heads in shame and unable to look at those children's eyes because if those members actually think that they're doing the best for the children of this country they are very sadly mistaken. I do not commend this bill to the House."