Martin TraceyTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to support the Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill. Can I just pick up on a comment about cross-party accord breaking out. There is no accord that has broken out"; the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians have all been working on this piece of legislation for some time and actually they attempted to have this piece of legislation brought to the House last year I think—or the year before. It asked the Speaker 2 years ago whether we could put it in with a woman's name from every single party inside this House. Unfortunately the Speaker I believe ruled that there was no capacity to do that. So this House has no capacity for a cross-party accord that has been working together for some time to bring this piece of legislation or any other piece of legislation to this House—Hon Simon Bridges: Yeah but we're doing it now so what are you talking about?TRACEY MARTIN: —and so Mr Bridges—Hon Simon Bridges: It's what we're doing right now. TRACEY MARTIN: —Mr Bridges—perhaps that is something that needs to be looked at for the future. Hon Simon Bridges: But why? We're doing it now. TRACEY MARTIN: Regarding this piece of legislation—Mr Bridges—let us be clear that up until 1933 you could be 12 or 14 in this country and be able to marry. So it has been only since 1933 that a 16- and 17-year-old—the age got lifted then and their parents were able to actually give permission or consent for that to happen. We are interested—New Zealand First is interested—in why this is not included inside the family and whānau violence legislation. We understand how it got to be a member's bill. We were intimately involved in getting it to that point. But the fact is that there is another mechanism by which it could be recognised because this is violence against children. So the fact that it stands to one side away from that piece of legislation interests us. I also want to make sure that when this goes to the select committee we look at the fact that this is not just young people from another nation who may be brought here. I hope that there might be some scope inside either this piece of legislation or the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill to have a look at being able to lay charges against parents who do the following: I know intimately young women who have actually been sent back to Iraq at the age of 15 were married and produced two children and were brought back to New Zealand because they carried a New Zealand passport. They brought that husband with them who was some years older than them. They did so against their will but their parents took them there. What is the opportunity for that young woman to come back to New Zealand where she is safe and actually lay charges against those people who forced her into that situation? The family attempted to do the same thing to her younger sister and her younger sister fled with the support of Women's Refuge and left behind the two children that the older sister had had and every piece of family that they had had in this country. They were originally refugees they were New Zealand citizens and this took place. Have we got any scope to make sure that justice can be sought by New Zealand citizens who are manipulated and used in this way? If not then where would they seek justice from?So we stand in support because we know that this has to happen. It is not new though. I just want to put another piece of information in. In the 1970s 285 boys and 2304 girls aged 16 or 17 were wed in New Zealand. Times have changed. The reasons for which these young people are being married now are completely different and that is what we have to address. We have to address the reasons why these marriages are being entered into. We have to recognise that force is taking place and somewhere down the line we are going to have to address if these are children—and this Government has argued even that the age of responsibility should be raised for criminals—what they are doing in a sexual relationship that is being condoned by the State under the guise of marriage? Chris Bishop: You don't know it's sexual. TRACEY MARTIN: It is a conversation internationally Mr Bishop; you might want to catch up all right? We are going to have to address this. It raises issues around the age of consent. It raises other issues. But at some stage—this is merely a step on the way forward and we are going to have to catch up with the rest of the developed world and talk about why these children are in marriage in the first instance. Kia ora."