Henare Peeni: Coroners Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Coroners Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 20 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7413. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa. I rise to take a call in the second reading on the Coroners Amendment Bill. I was and am fortunate to be on the Justice and Electoral Committee which looked into this particular bill. As already mentioned by my colleagues this evening it is with reluctance that we will not be able to support this particular bill and may I add it is through no lack of effort—it is through no lack of effort. Other members on the select committee I am sure will be able to testify to the amount of good robust debate that went on in the select committee.If I may just digress very slightly but still keep on the topic at hand it was actually during our consideration of this bill in the select committee that my father passed away unexpectedly here in Pōneke—in Wellington. I have got to be honest and say that for the majority of New Zealanders who are not directly affected by this particular process it is a foreign one. But through my work on the select committee and the tragic circumstances that fell upon my whānau it was interesting and important to gain an understanding of this particular process firsthand. I want to acknowledge that as it was not that long ago.But we entered into a lot of robust debate in the select committee. Colleagues across the House have mentioned some of those aspects and I want to pick up on some of the ones that Ms Ardern and my other colleagues have mentioned this evening.Before I carry on I do want to also echo the sentiments made by many members across the House in acknowledging those who came to submit in front of the select committee. There were some very heartbreaking submissions there were some that were actually more practical and there were also some that seemed rather silly in that the process had not been made a bit easier for those submitters throughout the tragic circumstances that involved their use of the coronial system.The undertaking of the coronial system—it is important for the mind of our nation that it is robust and promotes consistency and timeliness. The papers here in front of us all talk about the need to rid the system of some of the red tape if you like and in particular the duplication that takes place when going through the coronial process.But I want to touch on the point made by my colleague Mr Naylor around the consideration of the committee. At all stages it was commendable that whānau and families were placed at the forefront of our thinking when it came to the submissions and also our considerations on the bill. I want to pick up on the words of my colleague Ms Ardern in relation to the debate and discussion around the Defence Force and I want to acknowledge the Hon Phil Goff who attended that particular sitting of the select committee. With his in-depth knowledge and expertise he came to bring a case on behalf of some of the families with whom he has had contact in the past—and those families have been named this evening. He gave very good input and it was cause for some solid debate within the select committee.I do express some concerns. Ms Ardern in particular did a great job in raising this particular point but I want to bring up some of the points raised by the Hon Phil Goff in that select committee. It is important that when we consider the plight of some of our families who are dealing with the loss of their loved ones while serving for the armed services we consider what they are going through. He raised some important points about the long drawn-out process and the lack of transparency around the process that the families had to endure and those are some of the concerns that we have with that particular part of the bill.Many on this side of the House have spoken about the recommendations and how they must be considered seriously responded to and most important implemented where practicable. I am thinking about underlying themes in some of the speeches this evening and one of those is actually around the capacity of the coronial office. It has already been mentioned—the number of coroners across the country. My colleague and whanaunga Mr David Clendon spoke about the Bay of Islands and how basically from Auckland to Northland there is only one coroner and how this does not actually help speed up the process so that it can allow whānau to grieve.For example if you pass away up in the Bay of Islands and you enter into the coronial process your loved one must go to Auckland. Days pass the loved one comes home and we know that in Māori customs in particular we mourn for our loved ones over several days. With this process added on we are now talking about a week and that is just not practical. Already some of the comments across the House are about making sure that this particular bill—not “speeds up” the process because we want to give it due recognition and it must take its course but we also want to consider our loved ones who are grieving at home. So it is important that the recommendations must be considered seriously responded to adequately and like I said given a bit of teeth.It touches on the point made by our leader Andrew Little who spoke about the unnecessary deaths in the workplace. One of those workplaces in particular is forestry. I currently sit on a forestry trust board. We have been fortunate that our health and safety record on our land is very very good and we work hard to ensure that it is that way. But sadly for many whānau there have been a large number of losses of forestry workers over a number of years now. The purpose of the recommendations from the coroner’s office is to make sure that these deaths do not continue—that lives are not wasted unnecessarily. I touch on Mr Little’s point when he said that this was probably the best opportunity for some time now to be able to get this particular piece of legislation right so that we do not come back here and revisit this upon the unnecessary passing away of people on the job site.The legislation has been talked about with regard to the reporting of suicides and I congratulate the committee on striking a pretty fine balance in what is a very difficult subject to deal with. Indeed in light of recent weeks when suicide awareness in particular has been raised across the country it is important that we allow the media to do its job but also that we protect the whānau who are grieving. It has been talked about—this copycat syndrome or mentality which could potentially come about through reporting in the media.In some cases that I am familiar with in and amongst the schools arguably the media did not play a part in that but I do acknowledge that the media actually do have an important role in stopping it as well. That is the balance we are talking about there and I want to commend the select committee for striking that balance.In conclusion during the Committee stage we do plan to put forward some amendments to this bill in the hope that as I mentioned earlier we can seize the opportunity to get this right and to support and assist the coroner’s office in its function and in the important role that it performs. I do want to just finish on the theme that I spoke about earlier which seems to be running under many of the speeches and that is around capacity. Where we can I too hope that in the future we can address thatat some point in time. Kia ora tātou.