Faafoi Kris; Rurawhe AdrianSEXUAL VIOLENCE LEGISLATION BILLSecond ReadingHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): I present a legislative statement on the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I move That the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill be now read a second time.The Sexual Violence Legislation Bill will reduce the trauma that sexual violence complainants experience in court while maintaining a defendant's fundamental rights and making sure that the trial process remains fair. This bill is part of the Government's commitment to reduce and ultimately eliminate family violence and sexual violence in Aotearoa. [Interruption]Hon Simon Bridges: Sort yourself out guys.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Thank you you'll get your turn. Just calm—just calm. At this stage can I also acknowledge my ministerial colleague the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Marama Davidson and along with the work that I will do with her over the next three years that will help to lessen the unacceptable secondary harm that victims and survivors of sexual violence may experience within the justice system. We need to ensure that when victims and survivors do reach out and when they do appear before a court our justice system does respond and does no harm. The second reading of this piece of legislation is timely because earlier today I had the pleasure of meeting the Chief Victims Advisor Kim McGregor and going through a number of issues that she wants to prioritise over the next three years and the way that we would like to work together to make sure that her mission in making sure that victims have more rights within the process is executed by this Government which has made a great start. Can I acknowledge the Justice Committee for their work at the select committee process and those who submitted because these changes are critical to reducing the trauma that contributes to our low prosecution and conviction rates for sexual violence. During my reading and the discussions around this bill I was a little bit shocked about some of the stats that came out a couple of years ago from the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey that indicated that 23 percent of adults here in New Zealand have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes. Then when you narrow that down to women that increases to 34 percent of adults. So if we can put that into context if we know 10 people roughly at least a couple of them will have experienced sexual violence in some way. And if you narrow that down to 10 women in our lives a third of them in some way shape or form would have experienced sexual violence. In a country like New Zealand I think those statistics are not great which is why this Government and the previous Government—and I want to acknowledge my colleague Jan Logie as well—has made a priority of making sure that we can prevent much family violence and sexual violence.Now when you piece that together with what we do know in stats and also the numbers that we don't know—the women that don't come forward who are scared about their victimisation and the re-traumatisation through a process whether it be speaking up first or whether you speak up and then go through the court process and who decide that that calculation is not one that they want to make—these changes are even more important. That's why I'm happy to be speaking on this second reading. The key changes within the bill do tighten the rules around evidence regarding the complainant's sex life to ensure that they are protected from irrelevant and unduly invasive questioning. Now I think I've had a discussion with the Hon Simon Bridges that that is a sticking point for the National Party and I also understand it's a sticking point for quite a large number of the legal fraternity. But I would argue that if we have a system where the adversarial nature that is set up prevents victims of sexual violence making that simple calculation that they should come forward or acknowledge that they should go to a trial and give evidence against a potential offender it prevents them from doing that. Our system is not right and we need to make sure that the measures the processes within a court while maintaining a fair trial do not revictimise those victims of sexual and family violence. One of the things that certainly came through in the submission to this bill from Kim McGregor is that that is exactly what has been happening not just recently but for decades.If it's OK Mr Speaker I do want to read from the Chief Victims Advisor's submission to this piece of legislation to the select committee because she said that—and this is directly from the submission—Currently the experience of giving evidence at trial is traumatic often described by complainants as being akin to a second assault. One complainant … said that while she thought she was going to be killed when she was raped at least she would have been spared … [the trial process] as it was worse than the rape itself. When we compare that to current cases we see little has improved for the complainants." the Chief Victims Advisor said. And a quotation from that person: "[the court system] … absolutely broke her and she has never recovered."So to allow that situation to continue in our court process to this side of the House and to other parties in the House is not on. We now have the ability to change this law and I am totally aware that other legal fraternity or others may have a disposition to parts of this law for pure legal reasons. But the law cannot continue like this if it is preventing victims of crime coming forward and having a fair day in court and to face an offender. Now we're not making any judgment about whether the offenders are guilty or innocent within that process but to make sure that we have through the whole process comfort post a sexual violence event for people who are victims to come forward have their day in court and leave knowing that justice has been served—has not been something that's been available to them for some time. I think it's high time that for those people who have been in those positions who haven't had their day in court because of their unwillingness to put them through that situation and be revictimised that day has come. So again I don't want to take up too much time of the House but I thank the select committee for this piece of legislation. The changes within it will I think make sure that a fair day in court can be had and those who are brave enough to have a day in court who are victims of sexual violence can do that in a way that allows them to have their say against a potential offender but doesn't make them feel like they're being victimised again. Again this is a piece of legislation that has been a promise and something certainly in Labour Party manifestos for some time. I'm proud to make sure that it is progressed and I hope it progresses through this House with the unanimous support of the Parliament in order to make sure the victims of sexual violence can go through the court process without feeling that they're revictimised."