Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Thank you very much for this opportunity. First can I take this opportunity to farewell Mr Fred Whata who worked hard to ensure that Māori values were in the justice system—a rigid justice system. He was based out of Rotorua and was laid to rest on Thursday of last week—can I farewell him.In farewelling him I cast my mind back to other significant contributors to this discussion. Despite not being in the earthly realm with us today their influence continues and Judge Mick Brown is one who comes to mind. When the Minister for Social Development spoke about the length of time it takes to make such changes I could not help but pull out my copy of Pūao-te-ata-tū – Daybreak—published some decades ago—and consider some of the recommendations made in there. I am reminded of the quote used by the member Jono Naylor who quoted my grandfather in his maiden speech. He said: We have come too far not to go further. We have done too much not to do more." I am reminded of that particular saying at this point in time when I consider the proposed changes in this bill. My colleagues on this side of the Chamber have certainly expressed their view quite clearly on it and I want to contribute in the same vein with regard to—as detailed in Supplementary Order Paper 248 submitted by Jacinda Ardern—the changes around the age of 18 and with regard to how important that is in the wider debate about those particular circumstances that those young people find themselves in. It speaks to the confusion that is offered in this particular instance for so many of our young people and I mentioned this in a previous debate on this bill around a sort of rite of passage: "When am I a young person? When I am no longer a young person? What does this mean when I turn 18? I am still 17. Can I drink? Can I drive?"—well not at the same time and they certainly cannot drive after drinking. But they are wondering: "When can I do all these things?". There is a large confusion amongst our young people and we want to make sure that the law is very clear—I would not say "seamless"—that for these young people who find themselves in these unfortunate circumstances in this particular instance it includes up to 18-year-olds.I also want to talk about clause 7. Clause 7 is the one around the delegation of powers and I take the Minister's point around the delegation of powers to potentially iwi that look to care for the many Māori and many of their descendants who find themselves in the Child Youth and Family system. Although I appreciate that there are a lot of Māori operators in the social work space I cannot help but have a sense of trepidation and concern about not the intent but what this would look like. How do these powers of delegation actually play out on the ground if we are for example as the Minister pointed out giving responsibility to iwi to look after their young people? I have got a lot of concerns about that because in Tāmaki-makau-rau where most of the children in State care are we know that the majority of those tamariki are actually from Ngāpuhi and in terms of iwi influence Ngāpuhi's ability to provide services on the ground in Tāmaki-makau-rau is almost non-existent. I say that in respect of actually facilitating and executing those responsibilities of care as an entity—as a tribal entity—in Tāmaki-makau-rau and that is a bit of a concern to me although I acknowledge that many of the social workers in Tāmaki-makau-rau are actually of Ngāpuhi descent. But it gets back to that scope of delegation of powers and who that should go to. I commend the stance made by many of the iwi at the Iwi Leaders Forum around their commitment to our young people. In fact I was there a number of years ago when Naida Glavish and others made that commitment at the Iwi Leaders Forum. A number of years later not much has changed. Speaking of "not much has changed" if you just look in the Pūao-to-ata-tu – Daybreak book you will see that the number of children in State care back in the 1980s is actually not too dissimilar from the number today."