The prime minister is standing by the Government's Oranga Tamariki monitoring reforms despite widespread criticism.
The Oranga Tamariki Oversight Bill passed its third reading in Parliament last week. The controversial legislation will remove the Office of the Children's Commissioner from the role of Oranga Tamariki watchdog, in favour of a new system.
Jacinda Ardern told Breakfast on Monday that the purpose of the bill is "to make sure that with an agency that has so much power as Oranga Tamariki, and where it's about our kids, that we have proper oversight, monitoring, a complaints system, but also that we continue to have advocacy".
"There's been a number of reports for a long time that say we need greater independent oversight, there's different views on who should be doing that job but I think we all agree that oversight's required."
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The bill has been opposed by the National Party, ACT, the Greens and Te Paati Māori, as well as a number of children's advocates.
Child Matters chief executive Jane Searle told Q+A with Jack Tame in June that the reforms could actually make matters worse by detracting from the Office of the Children's Commissioner, "the most vocal and most publicly known advocate for children in this country".
But Ardern said: "Let's get it in place because I think what's most important is that people have a place to go if there are concerns, if there are complaints, and that we also have monitoring.
ACT Party's Karen Chhour says change was needed, but this wasn't the right step. (Source: Breakfast)
"We've committed that in three years' time we're going to keep looking at whether or not this is the exact way that we should have that oversight function, we're open in the future...but let's just get that oversight in place, that feels like the most important thing to me."
Of the 403 submissions that were made on the bill, 311 opposed the changes and only eight were in favour. Ardern said confusion about the bill's contents was a key factor behind this lack of support.
"One of the really difficult things that we noticed during the course of this debate was that some people believed that it was doing things that it simply wasn't.
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"For instance, some people believed that we were getting rid of the Children's Commissioner, which it's not, and so you can understand why some people were particularly worried because unfortunately there was some confusion, some misinformation out there.
"This is about stepping up the oversight and monitoring, making sure that we have a proper independent complaints process, but we also have very strong advocacy which is the role of the Children's Commissioner and will continue to be."
Ultimately, Ardern said "the sky will not fall in with these changes".
"We're seeking to increase the oversight of Oranga Tamariki and increase and boost the voice for children.
"We need to get these changes in place and we should give it a chance."
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