Ngaro AlfredHon ALFRED NGARO (National): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to take a call in this third reading of the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill. I want to acknowledge the Minister who has just read the speech in the third reading Kris Faafoi and acknowledge that on behalf of the Minister herself the Hon Tracey Martin as well. In fact we couldn't think of a better Minister to do this. He is kind he's caring and in some cases he's cuddly to his community. I just want to commend him and thank him for his words. I think his words—even though he wasn't part of the process—were very genuine and I want to congratulate him on eventually at the end of the month becoming a Cabinet Minister because I think he deserves that as well. He emanates the very heart of this bill.I want to acknowledge first and foremost the work that was previously done by the Hon Anne Tolley. The work around this was the transformation and change of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act then moved on to the Oranga Tamariki legislation which is before us in the second part of that amendment to that work as well. I want to also acknowledge the Hon Tracey Martin who's taken on and championed this cause.Madam Deputy Speaker you will know—oh sorry I do apologise; I do not want to bring you into the debate but the Hon Anne Tolley knew and was aware of the importance of allowing a whole of community—those who are stakeholders those who have been impacted by the system not only in the care and protection but also in the youth justice which particularly relates to this bill. We needed to make the system fairer just caring and in a way deal with the transitions of change through many of our young people who come in to the system as well. So the heart of this bill—an omnibus bill so it reflects a number of different changes; 11 in particular—is about tightening up a process and procedures particularly relating to 17-year-olds within the youth justice jurisdiction. There was a time previously in 2015 to 2016 when there were changes to the care and protection and the age of State care for young people was raised to the age of 18. This again aligns that to the youth justice jurisdiction which aligns that age for 17-year-olds up to the age of 18 in the system as well.We also want to acknowledge that this is part of a transformation that's significantly important. Those of us right across the House are supporting it for that particular reason. The purpose of these changes is in particular for vulnerable children and as has been discussed through the second reading and also the committee stage often the victims of crime are in particular in this case those in the youth justice system as well. So we want to ensure that the system deals adequately with the consequences of those actions. It could be dealing with recidivist behaviour but at the same time too it wants to ensure that we have a transition of change that allows them to go on to live normal productive lives in our communities as well. So the purpose of the changes to be made is to ensure that vulnerable children and young people have the best chance to have a safe stable and loving home which will help them to grow into successful independent adults as well.The majority of the reforms under this Children Young Persons and Their Families Act now the Oranga Tamariki Legislation Bill will come into force on 1 July as well. Now we do note that the only objection to this process has been in regards to the timing but that being said we're here now. We do support this right across the House.I do want to say that there have been times in the debates even in the committee stage where the small things actually count when we've joked across with each other about the counting of paper clips. More importantly how do we count those little things that actually do make a difference? My colleagues across the House there Greg O'Connor and Priyanca Radhakrishnan will know we had many debates about this. Is it important to count the little things that actually matter? I think they do and this bill goes to prove that. Supplementary Order Paper 247 talks about the small technical changes that do make a difference. They may be as small as a paper clip but in actual fact if we don't reverse that then retrospectively we will not have made changes to ensure that we follow through with the intent of this bill as well. So those changes—and I won't go through the Supplementary Order Paper; we did discuss it in the committee stage. We felt it was fair and just. We hope again that the intent of this was to create a fairer process.The only thing that we would say—and the caveat that we had in some of our debates was ensuring that there's capacity and capability within the system when those changes are made on 1 July in 2019 this year. We've been assured of that. We just hope that there won't be unintended consequences. We know that currently even for those in care at the moment because of raising the age we have approximately 6300 children in care. That has been increased. We hope that this process will start to reduce that number and there'll be greater efficiencies. Inside of the bill part of the reducing of that is the efficiency so that if there are Schedule 1A offences which carry a maximum penalty of up to 14 years—the severity of those offences—and non - Schedule 1A they can be heard in one place in a District Court and in those cases then it's up to the judiciary to then preside over that situation and make the decisions accordingly.So we commend this bill. We think it's actually an important part of what will help change the system. We on this side support that. Again the only caveat that we have is that we would hope that the capacity and capability of the system—we're talking about residential care facilities for youth justice we're talking about the extra social workers that will be needed those who are counsellors lawyers. There are a number of key stakeholders inside of this. So while we will pass this legislation today heading through to Royal assent then being implemented on 1 July—that's actually so that now begins the ability for the action to begin. So our hope again is that that will be carried out in a way that will benefit the outcomes of our youth and our young people in our communities as well. So we on this side of the House again acknowledge all the work. We want to acknowledge the officials who spent some time with us over this process as well and again finally we want to acknowledge that at the end of the day though we've had this debate though as legislators we're now putting this bill before the House and then out eventually into the community our intent and our hope right across Parliament is that in our communities—where there are young people who have become the victims of crime and who have become perpetrators of crime as well—this will be a pathway and a process that allows them to be able to continue to go on to live better lives. We would hope that whānau and family that are out there will also see that there's a role of opportunity to participate in the rehabilitation and changing of lives as well and at the same time too the outcome is what we intend would happen so they will continue to go on to live productive independent lives. We commend this bill to the House.