Davidson MaramaHon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Huri noa kia ora tātou ōku hoa kaimahi i roto i tēnei Whare Pāremata. [Greetings Mr Speaker. Greetings to all of my colleagues in this House.]I want to put up front that everything we do in this House is important—is important for democracy is important for communities and has an impact on the real everyday lives of our families and our people. This piece of legislation—it just came to me as I was sitting here listening to Minister Faafoi to Mr Bridges. It has hit me how incredibly important how significant these changes are and in particular that I am standing here also for the first time in this House with a direct relationship to my ministerial portfolio as the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and a vision that we can and must eliminate violence from our beautiful country. That is feeling heavy. That is feeling like a huge responsibility as it should—as it should. I welcome the robust debate. Upholding a fair justice system for all absolutely is deserved of robust debate about every single word change about every single clause. So I acknowledge the heavy significance the important significance of this work for fair justice. We all I think believe in a justice system that actually delivers justice that creates healing and restoration for everyone involved that delivers accountability for all involved and that most importantly again—and I cannot say this enough—upholds the dynamic of a fair trial and natural justice; and that all people everyone who comes before the justice system should trust in that system should have faith and should be taken seriously no matter what perspective of harm or an event you are coming from. So this legislation therefore is primarily about improving what has been a flawed system for ever what has harmed victims for ever. We know in fact that when we re-harm and re-traumatise victims in our system that has no benefits for anybody—not for anyone including defendants and our families and communities. So this legislation is trying to bring back some balance some fairness and some actual justice in the system. I must acknowledge my colleague and former under-secretary Jan Logie who for our part in the Green Party has worked on deeply has cared about and has carried the responsibility of the legislation up until I have had the honour of being able to work closely with Minister Kris Faafoi which I look forward to and am inspired by his values and his vision for not just this legislation but for the broader work of reforming the justice system.As I've said there is injustice now and we cannot conflate a dear goal a goal that is dear and passionate to my heart which is to turn towards restorative truly restorative and alternative justice systems that really do call for accountability and put victims at the heart of all processes—we cannot conflate the changes in this law with the goals which I also hold dear about an overall decarceration of our country to also bring better safety for all. We mustn't let that conflation happen as I heard some clues of as I heard some hints of in the previous speaker Simon Bridges' submission just now in the House.So I acknowledge as a Māori woman that sitting alongside our overall reforms we know we must remove the systemic racism from our justice system. I need to acknowledge that so that people are aware so that my communities are aware that I hold that through the entire passage of these justice and legislation reforms. System flaw—system flaw—is what we are focusing on here. When we have a system—and why I will quickly pick up on some of the particular clauses of the bill amendments—that further harms victims it ends up in people not trusting. It builds harm upon harm. It creates an understanding that people should not reach out should not report will not be believed. In fact the real impact of having a justice system which upholds that mistrust is actually the ongoing nature of intergenerational violence. That is actually what the real impact of having a flawed justice system that treats victims terribly is: the impact of ongoing intergenerational violence as well. So from the submissions—this is the second reading—I too am going to thank and refer to the submission of Chief Victims Advisor to Government Dr Kim McGregor who pointed out—and actually referred to my colleague Jan Logie—that the 1980s was primarily convicting stranger rapes which did not reflect the common occurrence of partner acquaintance or intrafamilial rapes experienced by many sexual violence victims/survivors." Those are myths that we need to be able to correct and turn our entire nationwide dialogue towards the actual true understandings of what sexual violence actually is who commits it and what the actual impacts are.I'll go back to the particular clause that relates to that part in Dr Kim McGregor's submission. Oh I also wanted to pick up on part of her submission that also highlighted that the research which we know is unacceptable points out "approximately 34% of women and 12% of men and one in two trans people report experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime." I wanted to make sure that we had an understanding of how far too common and serious this is. What that means then is some of the key changes in the bill—and I wanted to pick up particularly on the key change around requiring judges to direct the jury on any myth or misconception relating to sexual violence that they consider relevant to the case. And we know—we know—it is clear that unfortunately those myths have been perpetuated and strengthened in all sections of our community and society including in the courtrooms. That is absurd and should never have been the case. I welcome that. I welcome all of this legislation and the amendments but I particularly focus on that and ask and I think congratulate that my understanding is that—[Bell rung]—judges have committed to further and ongoing training to make sure that they even have that understanding in the first place so they can correct it in their own courtrooms because I know that is not necessarily always the case. Gosh I'm out of practice and this time goes fast. I'll pick up on one other particular clause. Oh by the way the changes in the select committee strengthened this bill and I thank the Justice Committee for making it even safer for victims through this legislation to appear before our justice system.One particular clause that I cannot talk about this bill without focusing on is the clause that removes the arbitrary mention of a person's sexual experience and disposition to protect complainants from unduly invasive questioning. It was absurd that this was ever allowed in the first place. This has contributed—contributed—to ongoing rape culture that we have had for far too long in our country. This was—[Interruption] Absolutely. It was absurd. Yes. Yes. So I really wanted to make my point of particular support for that piece of legislation. Goodness gracious where have I come to? So I welcome the bill's amendments and they are directly related to my visions to eliminate family violence and sexual violence. This works in cooperation with my vision for transforming again the entire flawed sector. I'll finish on this: this should also be seen as prevention work—that when we can fix the flaw in this justice system we will prevent further harm. I welcome this bill. Thank you Madam Speaker."