Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I am really pleased to take a call this evening on this particular bill which I spoke on in the second reading. I am not a member of this particular select committee the Justice Committee but I want to acknowledge Jo Hayes and the work that she's put into steering this bill through the House. I also want to acknowledge the committee and the work that they have done in getting this bill to the House. I really enjoy speaking on bills that have cross-party support across the House. I think that it's really great particularly also for the public to see how well we can work together on issues such as these that are really important issues particularly because they affect our young people here in New Zealand.There is no place here for forced marriage in Aotearoa. This bill is about protecting our young people—our 16- and 17-year-olds. They are quite vulnerable particularly at that age. They face so many pressures so many outward social pressures—pressures to achieve at school if they're at school work etc.—so I think that this bill goes a long way to afford them some protection. It gives them a voice; a voice when they may not necessarily feel that they have a voice of their own accord particularly if they are in a situation where they may be being forced into a marriage—and that type of situation. That could be a really scary step for them to try and say no when they don't feel that they can. So this enables them to be able to do that. It gives them a voice to be able to do that.I particularly like in the bill where it talks about the judge being able to request a cultural report. I think it's really important particularly in this day and age that they have those made available to them so they can have a really good picture of this particular young person and the culture that they come from and the cultural values that their family hold dear. My question around that would be though as far as the cultural report after they've taken into account that report what is the purpose from there on in of that report? I know that they can go to parents and get their opinions and advice but it doesn't affect the overall determination necessarily or can't sway the overall determination of the judge and their decision. So I'm quite interested to know where that cultural report fits in to that perspective.I also think it's really important that this bill also takes into account de facto relationships because at this stage a de facto relationship is not a legally recognised relationship unless there is a signed consent from the parents of the young person. I think that by enabling de facto relationships to be a part of this bill it works really well in so far as we have people that could still be coerced into a de facto relationship if it wasn't part of this legislation—therefore it could have been used in a way to go against what this legislation is trying to prevent and put in place. So I think that's a really important part to have in this particular piece of legislation.I also think that it's a really important point in this legislation that a judge will take into account whether these young people are making this decision of their own free will—that they're not being coerced into it—and that they do take into account a person's age a person's maturity whether this marriage will be in the best interests of this young person and that they're not going to be taken advantage of in any way.As a parent I think about my daughter at the age of 16—I'm not saying this all happens just particularly to young women but predominantly I think it is likely to happen to young women. I would hate to think of my daughter or her friends being in a situation where they are forced into a marriage where they may be subject to violence where they don't feel that they can speak up and have a voice and air their concerns or their fears about being in this particular marriage—a forced marriage of sorts. I really again commend Jo Hayes on the work that she's put into this and I commend this bill to the committee.