Abel SteveSTEVE ABEL (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I just want to echo some of the sentiments around the House this afternoon. I also want to acknowledge Lucy for the beautiful brooch. My mother died of melanoma also and I was 40 years old and to lose your father at 14 is a cruel fate in life. I wish I'd thought of something as meaningful to do at the time as you have thought of in producing these beautiful daffodils. One thing I want to acknowledge is that the quality of the technology is really important. As we well know in this House bad audio is a problem. The audio in this House is excellent and it's challenging to consider that for both defendants and victims and the whole courtroom process it's very important that there is proper investment in the actual audio technology so that people can hear what's going on in this remote audio legislation. I would urge the Minister to consider that because that is a thing that risks harming the justice for all parties in the court process. We support very much further supporting victims from worsening exacerbation of the trauma that they have suffered in being the victims of crime from their perpetrators. I've been before the courts myself a few times not for crimes of moral turpitude but I've always been struck by what it must be like for victims to have to actually share a room with the person who has committed harm against them. To have to get out of bed that morning and think about it for weeks to come and turn up in court and walk into the same little room and have to look in the face the person who's harmed them. There are many people who rightly do not want to do that and should not have to do that. So for that reason we commend this legislation. There are others who will want to do that and they should retain the right to do that. Likewise I think the other risk is for defendants who may want to appear in court. Many may not also want to appear in court and that is fair enough. I think my colleague here made a legitimate point that the defendants need to be protected from the risk that they will come under pressure to not appear in court. If we are to have natural justice if we are to have a thorough process where we recognise the principle that all accused are innocent until proven guilty then we need to make sure defendants know that they have that right to appear in court should they wish to. Even though we know that will cost the justice system more in practical terms and effort to get people to court. That is something that I think needs to be watched and scrutinised to make sure that defendants are not coming under pressure to not appear in court.Justice delayed is justice denied; I echo the sentiments of my colleague James Meager. Justice delayed is justice denied for all parties for both victims and for defendants. I happened to be involved in a matter that was before the court during the COVID time when the courts shut down for a prolonged period. And when I heard from lawyers of their clients—in their language—rotting on remand" because they were waiting for weeks and weeks and months and months for their hearings to come up it was an example of where justice delayed is justice denied for both the accused and for the victims. So I echo those sentiments that if we can deal with that backlog if we can speed up the process by which these issues come to the court that is a good thing for all and that is a good thing for justice in this country. So we will be as the Green Party supporting this bill. Thank you Mr Speaker."