Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare nei. First of all I just really want to acknowledge the member that just spoke the honourable member Ian McKelvie. I got to know him quite well recently earlier on this year. He's not a bad bloke for being a Tory chap. I'm sure he's actually really a communist socialist at heart. He's on the wrong side.Hon Member: He is—comrade.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Yes he's our comrade.Hey look but jest aside Ian McKelvie has brought this bill to the House because it deals to a particular area in his community but across all of our communities. Look we're a dog-loving nation but we are also a nation that really cares about ensuring that the welfare of those animals that are going through the process can be dealt with too and also ensuring that the right people are dealing with—I guess one removing these category 1 offences from out of just the day-to-day time of the courts the District Courts and being able to ensure that these types of offences can be processed and processed well. So to the member for identifying that this was a real issue for most communities across the country: ka nui te mihia ki a koe e hoa [congratulations to you my friend].Look I want to pick up on one of the notes that the member just made in respect to the role that justices of the peace play in our communities. Early on in my legal career I was clerking for the judiciary in the Hawke's Bay. One of the first tasks that they gave me was to provide training to all of the justices of the peace so every X amount of months I had to go and train them on criminal procedure and a whole range of other different things. I absolutely could not endorse more the comments of my colleague across the House just prior in terms of speaking to their competency diligence and just the ethic in the work that they do on behalf of our communities to ensure that the justice train if you will can proceed in a seamless and timely way.I was looking at—trying to get my head across—just how much work this consumes of the District Court's time and what we are really asking of justices of the peace if we were to support these amendments going through. Well as I was looking through: if justices of the peace were to hear these category 1 offences—so these are all of the offences basically under the Dog Control Act that aren't punishable by imprisonment—what would that do to improve court efficiencies and to free up those District Court judges' time to deal with more complex cases?So the number of active criminal cases in the District Courts is around about just under 30000—it's about 28500. Sorry that was in 2013-2014; now it's just over 33000 so there's been a massive increase in the workload that has been sought and been required by those District Court judges. We can see that across the judicial landscape in its totality there were some fundamental amendments made by the previous Government particularly in the area of the Family Court that really increased the workload in the Family Court and across the District Court which we say put far too much pressure on those courts and were poor amendments in the first instance. So anything that this side of the House can do to support the reduction of additional stress to those members of the judiciary that occupy that front-line role we see as a good thing. Actually just while I'm on that note I want to acknowledge the appointment and swearing in of Judge Heemi Taumaunu this weekend up in Whāngāra Marae who was appointed as the Chief District Court Judge. He presides over 172 judges. It's the largest judicial appointment in all of Australasia. So that just happened—good East Coast lad—in the weekend and so I'm sure that he will be pleased to see that the work of his judicial officers will be reduced by the introduction of this amendment by way of the honourable Ian McKelvie's member's bill before us. So third on this side of the House and actually in our—well like I said we're a dog-fearing dog-loving nation. I'm standing right next to actually my good friend and colleague Priyanca Radhakrishnan. She's often talking about her dogs. I can't quite recall their names—Priyanca Radhakrishnan: Well controlled. KIRITAPU ALLAN: —but they are well-controlled good dogs. I'm probably—I'm being a little distracted but I just know that her passion and love for dogs is overwhelming because we hear about it a lot. But this bill here we say will go to improving the welfare of dogs and these animals in terms of the reduction of the time and the stress that will be involved in the prosecutions under this Act the separation of those dogs from their owners and reducing that waiting time. So for us again we see some sense and sensibilities in the member's proposals that are before us this afternoon.If we look at again just at the landscape this bill does reduce burdens elsewhere. Pound facilities: so when those dogs are picked up if they haven't been registered or you know if there's been—for whatever they've done. So dogs are usually held—if they are picked up they're held in dog pounds and there is an alarming pressure on those pounds and also the cost that it's associated with. So where those dogs are typically held for the duration of those proceedings those times will be lessened now. For dog owners: we say there will be a reduction in the burdens as well—so for those who are unsure about the consequences that will occur through the system. The territorial authorities—and actually whilst I'm on territorial authorities I do want to acknowledge the submissions of Ashburton District Council Rangitikei District Council and Ruapehu District Council who all made submissions in support and in favour of this member's bill this evening. They did so because what they are seeing—and again it comes back to that point that they have the burden of administering the registration system and they have a role in administrating where there are breaches of that registration system by way of administration of the pounds and what not. So all three of those district councils they swung their support in behind the Hon Ian McKelvie's sensible bill.I also want to acknowledge the submission of Federated Farmers. I feel like I get to hear a lot from them across many facets of my life—I heard from them today on guns; hearing from them tomorrow on water. But very very pleased to see that they too have the time and the capacity to be able to support important bills like this because we know that farmers in our rural and provincial communities—I think the member just made this point prior—are certainly the largest dog owner in the country as a category of owner. But you know for many provincial folk our dogs are our companions they're our workers and they play a significant commercial cultural and social role in all of our lives. So to see that Federated Farmers have come out and they've put in a submission speaking to the merits of ensuring that the timeliness of any of these types of prosecutions can be reduced is a really positive contribution. So I want to acknowledge them and their submission. There are a number of amendments that have been proposed to this bill. I didn't have the privilege of sitting through a number of those deliberations at that time but I have had the opportunity to read the reports from the officials. I want to acknowledge the work that they have done to help bring some finesse to the bill and fix up some of the areas and there were several areas in the bill that have been proposed for amendment and they've been accepted by the Primary Production Committee. So clause 4 of the bill introduced inserting a new section 66A and that excluded three particular offences which I won't list from lists of offences that could be heard by justices of the peace or community magistrates. So basically we've agreed to those. My time is running out so I can't get into the nuances but I do want to acknowledge the member. Tēnā koe.