Turei Metiria; Tisch LindsayMETIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): I just want to address two provisions in this bill. The first is the intention to increase the age to 18 years and the Green Party supports that provision. The second is the provision that says that the views of children will be embedded in the process. They are quite nice words but of course the devil is always in the detail with these things and in this case there is just insufficient detail to prove that that will actually be the case. It is easy to say; it is much much harder to do.It is certainly good to increase the age to 18 because in theory it should give the children in State care more stability and more security at that point in their lives. And anybody who has been the parent of an 18-year-old well knows how much care and support they need even well after that. The child's views are very important when it comes to Child Youth and Family (CYF) care. These children are often much older than their years would suggest and they need and deserve a much greater say over what is happening with their lives. They need to be able to talk about the things that are happening to them particularly if they are in foster care or in other agencies because of course we know the disasters that can happen when children are ignored and do not have an opportunity to be heard about what matters most.I would just note that neither of these provisions in the bill really provides that certainty for the Greens in terms of support and what really concerns me is that in 2015 the Office of the Children's Commissioner's report showed that in 2014 1000 CYF children went missing. So there were 1700 children that came off CYF books. Some of them aged-out at 17 some of them went into foster homes but of that 1700 over 1000 came off CYF's books and CYF had no way of reporting what happened to those kids. Those kids went missing from CYF.We can see some of the results of that actually because as agencies that we have all dealt with know—those that have been working with young people who are homeless—a very large proportion of homeless young people are those who are technically in State care and they are away from State care. They have escaped from their foster homes or they have left CYF care because that care is inadequate to meet their needs but those children those young people have no means to tell CYF what is going on for them—to be safe in disclosing information—and have no means to have any control over the living environment that they need to be well and safe and secure. So they just hightail it out of their homes and not only that CYF does not know where they are. In the 2014 year CYF could not report on the whereabouts of over 1000 children in its care. Any changes in legislation that are going to change the way CYF works has got to address the reality for these kids. What is most important at the core of that is that those kids have the right to have a say about what is going on for them. None of us can know unless you have been in State care what it is like to be in State care.As we know this Government has ignored the views of thousands of adults who have been in State care and are now in the position to be able to tell us what was going on for them. What about the kids who are in State care now: the ones who are missing the ones who are homeless the ones who are living in parks or are shacked up with adults because that is the only way they can get some sense of stability the ones who are in care at the moment and who are unsafe? How are they given any security or any certainty through this legislation that they can talk about what is happening to them and not only have their views heard but respected and that action will be taken in their favour?This bill does not do it. And if this bill does not do that what is the point? All that this bill is doing is actually maintaining the status quo which is that CYF's care—as much as the people the social workers love those kids and want to care for them—simply is not a system that can support these children and none of the changes proposed by Government can guarantee that those kids in State care are going to get the support that they need. It is pretty obvious in the provisions of this bill which is why we are not supporting it. Thank you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I call Louisa Wall—5 minutes.