Responding to Abuse in Care Legislation Amendment Bill

Now we come to the debate on Part 4. This is a debate on clauses 32 to 35, “Amendments to Public Records Act 2005”. The question is that Part 4 stand part.

Thank you, Mr Chair. It’s a privilege to be able to stand here on behalf of the Minister responsible for this part of the legislation around improving public records and the record-keeping in response to the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care. Part 4 deals with amendments to the Public Records Act 2005. Whilst this may seem like a small change, the change is to allow the Chief Archivist to audit an agency more frequently where required and to allow the Chief Archivist to work with agencies to put in place action plans and to issue performance notices to improve practice. This will make a big difference to the lives of people who are care experienced.

This is something that’s close to my heart, knowing that for children—especially focusing on children that have gone through the system from a very young age and have been part of the system most of their life—each page of documentation, each entry around what has happened in their lives, is a page in their story. They have a right and deserve to be able to see their story, understand their story, and digest their story in a way that they want to. Having to beg, chase, and often fight for those pages that make up a life and make up the story and the journey that they’ve been through going through a care system is highly inappropriate and quite disgusting in some circumstances.

We need to make sure that we give back the power to people who have been through the system and people who are care experienced to own their life and own their story on their terms. Anything that we can do to improve this, bring some more accountability into this space, speed up the process, and actually make sure that we’re doing the right thing to help people reflect on their history, heal in their present, and empower their future, is a good thing.

Thank you, Mr Chair. As we head toward the end of our engagement with this bill, our thanks, again, from this side of the Chamber to the Minister in the chair, the Hon Karen Chhour, for her really robust responses to questions, which we’ve found very helpful. I would say that we continue to believe that transformation is needed in this space. It’s certainly what we are hearing from those who’ve been through the system thus far and from those who represent them—that more needs to be done—and so we look forward to ongoing discussions with the Government. I do believe this an area that will require all sides of the House to work together in harmony as we continue on this journey.

I have a question in relation to a change proposed to the Public Records Act. I am looking at clause 34, “Section 33 amended (Independent audits of public offices)”; there are two issues I have here. The current section 33 of the Act, which is the “Independent audits of public offices”, requires that audits of the data kept must be conducted at an interval of not less than five years and not more than 10 years. The amendment removes that time period and changes the language so that it’s just “as directed by the Chief Archivist”. I am wondering what the rationale for removing that time period was.

The second issue is around independence. The current section 33 under the Public Records Act requires an independent commissioning of that review. The changes allow the audit to be “carried out by an employee of the department or another person engaged by the Chief Archivist”. I wonder if there are budget issues here. Section 33 in the current Act specifies that the archivist must carry the budget for those audits, and I wonder if, by making this change, we’re solving a budget problem but potentially not the independence issue—which the legislation, as it is currently drafted, protects.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Minister that the keeping of data is critical in terms of really giving justice to the people concerned. On the issue of timing and the issue of independence, I’d really appreciate the Minister’s response.

Kia ora, Mr Chair. Again, I want to reiterate my colleague’s thanks to the Minister in the chair, the Hon Karen Chhour, for her free and frank engagement this morning. It’s much appreciated, and I know that people whose lives are impacted by this appreciate it also. My second brief thanks is around Part 4, and you made it very clear, Minister—and for me and my own family, one of my parents came from a different time, when the records of their early life were long-since destroyed and burnt. It’s paramount that we protect and guard, as you said, Minister, people’s stories. I look from many decades ago to only the last two decades at young people in my care and the ability to access parts of their story.

I just want to seek reassurance—I feel like you have answered it, but I want to be able to, I guess, leave the House today and go back into my community and my home to make sure that everything will be available to a young person who has been in care. Secondly, I wonder if there’s any way within this—and I haven’t put an amendment on the Table, but it’s around plain language: I know that, at one stage, a young person received what was their Child, Youth and Family services information back in the day, but a lot of it was hard to understand. Is there any ability to ensure that plain language can be included in this piece of legislation?

I just wanted to answer the question in regards to clause 34. The advice here is that this allows for faster re-audits to check up on agency record-keeping. The Chief Archivist is statutorily independent as to looking at those audits, and the budget available for the audits is not changing.

I move, That debate on this question now close.

Motion agreed to.

Part 4 agreed to.

Schedule 1 agreed to.

Schedule 2 agreed to.

Kahurangi Carter’s Schedule 3 amendment to Amendment Paper 354 set out on Amendment Paper 366 is out of order as being inconsistent with a previous decision of the committee.

Schedule 3 agreed to.

Clauses 1 and 2