Henare Tau: Care of Children Law Reform Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Care of Children Law Reform Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14241. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (National): Catherine Tate uses the line “What a liberty!”. What a liberty this is.Tim Macindoe: Am I bothered?Hon TAU HENARE: “Am I bothered?” Fancy coming to the House and putting up a bill the Care of Children Law Reform Bill which is actually just a wee bit shorter than a press release that basically says nothing—it does not say anything. It does not say: “We are going to do this. It is my intention to do that. It is my intention to takeaway this and replace it with that.” It does not do anything other than abrogate some member of Parliament’s responsibility to come here with a few ideas—it does not. In fact it gives another organisation the right to make laws in this country. It forces a Minister to do something regardless of whether they want to or not but it does not require the person who is putting the bill up to do anything.It is grandstanding in its entirety. It does not require anybody in this House to do anything other than think that Jacinda Ardern has saved the world with her view on adoption while at the same time Kevin Hague and Nikki Kaye work behind the scenes without any fanfare whatsoever on a comprehensive—Jacinda Ardern: Which you’ve adopted? Have you adopted the bill?Hon TAU HENARE: Well let us talk about adoption. Let us talk about adoption. We will not be adopting this rubbish. We will not be adopting the grandstanding of the member who wants to be the member for Auckland Central and wave around a piece of paper and say to all the upwardly mobile people in Auckland “Look what I did. I did something for adoption.” But she did not—she did not. If this bill was to pass she would not do anything because there is nothing in the bill for her to do.Fancy coming to Parliament and sitting on the front bench. Fancy coming—Scott Simpson: Lazy sloppy.Hon TAU HENARE: It is lazy. It ismāngere. It is lazy. It is a terrible piece of work.I have put in a member’s bill once or twice and one of them got through. Somebody from over that side said: “Well that bill didn’t do anything did it?”. Well I tell you what. It did a hundred times more than what this bill does. Fancy having on a piece of paper: “I request the Law Society to go and make a bill.” What a joke. If the Law Commission was a member of Parliament I could agree. I could agree if the Law Commission was Cabinet. I could agree if the Law Commission was the Government. But it is not. Why does the member not get off her behind and do the hard yards like the two members whom I just mentioned? Why do they not get off their backsides and do the hard yards and write down maybe on a couple of pieces of paper: “Well this is what we intend to do and by hook or by crook it is going to go through the select committee.”Do you know what this bill is going to do? This piece of paper if it gets through will go to a select committee. The committee will hear submissions on it. Hundreds of people will want to make a submission on it until they find out that there is actually nothing in the bill and they will be very very disappointed. The bill is about smoke and mirrors about talking and telling the community that I Jacinda Ardern am doing something for adoption. She is not doing anything. She is not bringing the old relic from the past into the new world. She is not doing that. She is asking somebody else to think about it. She is asking somebody outside Parliament to do the job of a member of Parliament. That is why we are here to think about things and put ideas on a piece of paper not abrogate our responsibilities and send them down the road for somebody else to make a law. I do not support this lazy piece of work.