Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): I rise as the member of Parliament for North Shore to speak on the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill at its third reading. I wish to first acknowledge Louisa Wall who has brought this member's bill to this House. I was fortunate to be part of the Health Committee that participated in improving this bill and I acknowledge Louisa's engagement with that committee in a positive and proactive manner and the mannerism in which she took to be both supportive to the challenges that we had with the bill but also constructive in terms of the aspects that we did subsequently improve. And I think it is a reflection of the process that we go through in this House—that the value of the select committee process does contribute and bring value in terms of improving legislation.As we've heard the purpose of the bill is to protect and safeguard women accessing abortion facilities in a safe manner. The Health Committee got 890 submissions of which we had 100 or so in person. I acknowledge the large number of women that came and provided their stories to that committee many of which were very personal to what they had experienced and had an impact on all members of the committee no doubt. This aspect particularly impacts young women. It impacts about 55 percent of those women in the age range between 20 and 30 and for 65 percent of those women this was their first child. So it is acknowledged around the impact that this bill will have on those individuals in protecting them from the emotional harm that is and was incurred as a result of not having these safe zones in place.Louisa Wall acknowledged the key change in the amendment of this bill which is to section 13A in clause 5 which is around making it consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act so the limitations on a person's right to freedom of expression were minimal. The process that the committee also looked at was around looking at the way in which these safe zones would be applied. Initially it was going to be on a blanket approach but again we've decided that should be on a case-by-case basis again to not conflict with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.I'm pleased that the Health Committee invited the Attorney-General in to provide further review and further input in terms of those amendments that were made and as a result he confirmed that the amendments and recommendations addressed his concerns. I wish to quote a statement that he provided because I think it is quite relevant in this last reading of this bill: I consider that the safe area restrictions would serve the important purpose of protecting people providing and accessing abortion services from intimidation and emotional harm and that the proposal would not limit rights and freedoms more than is necessary to achieve that purpose. Freedom to protest in relation to abortion would be maintained in all places outside of safe areas."It is a pleasure to have been part of the process in order to bring this bill to its third reading. I acknowledge all of those that made submissions as we went through this process both for and against. I commend this bill to the House."