Borrows Chester: Coroners Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBorrows Chester: Coroners Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1783. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui):I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak on this bill. With a change of roles it is the first opportunity I have had to speak in the House this term and I am pleased it is on this bill having previously had some responsibility for the bill in another role. The bill seeks to correct some anomalies and to fix some concerns that have been identified in recent times.I want to start with one in particular. People will remember the Iraena Asher investigation from Pīhā Beach a number of years ago. The result of that coronial inquiry has thrown up some anomalies and some unfairness around some people who were involved in respect of that case. This bill seeks to make a change in respect of that. I am speaking specifically around the coronial inquest. Some negative comment was made by the coroner in respect of a witness on the night—someone who sought to give assistance to Ms Asher and that was Bobbie Carroll.What happened was that the coroner made some comment around the ramifications of actions that Ms Carroll took and speculated on what could have happened if other actions had been taken. In the end of course the Chief Coroner came to a position where we needed to change this law to make sure that if any comment was going to be made that might negatively impact on a witness or someone who had previously appeared or had some connection with a case then the coroner must identify what those comments are and make them known to that person before they are released publicly and give that person the opportunity to be able to speak on them.I know that this has been a terrible concern for that particular family and for Ms Carroll particularly her partner and the people who supported her. It is unfortunate that no apology has ever been given. For instance she was not given the opportunity to be represented or advised of her opportunity to be represented at the inquest or that comments were going to be made and the effect that that would have. So I would like to state here and have it recorded in Hansard that as a former Minister for Courts with responsibility for coroners I am sorry that that was not done and that those comments and those errors were made and I am pleased to see that there has been some attempt to rectify that now.I would also like to talk about suicide and the provisions around suicide reporting. The fact is that New Zealand has a terrible record in respect of suicide. About 500 people take their own lives each year. We know a lot about the statistics and we know very very little about the whys. We raise a lot of questions about suicide and have not necessarily sought answers hard enough although there is some good work going on at the moment at the behest of the Prime Minister and his Chief Science Adviser to find out more of the answers to the questions we have around suicide. For instance we know that of the 500-plus suicides a year about 100 of them are Māori which is four times the number of Pacific Islanders who take their own lives but we have no understanding of why that might be. We know for instance that about one in five is under the age of 25 and our youth suicide statistics in this country are among the worst if not the worst in the Western World. We have no understanding really as to why in this country that we take huge pride in that should be the case. We also do not necessarily understand why for instance those people in the lowest decile are just as represented as those people in the highest decile when it comes to income and social deprivation indexes—why they are equally represented. In fact we know very very little.When it comes to an investigation around suicide the cause of death which is what the coroner is chiefly charged with establishing is frequently blatantly obvious and having attended probably 100 suicides and several hundred sudden deaths I suppose I speak with some experience sadly in that respect. But to do some sort of psychological autopsy on what the contributing factors were—what was weighing on the mind of that person who took their life at the time they did the various stresses and strains that come upon somebody that drives them to the conclusion that those whom they love would be better off without them there is something we know very little about.I would like to see us as a community have a very broad discussion around suicide and its causes. I would also like to see authorities take a lead in implementing what has come to be known as a psychological autopsy into the issues that were weighing on the mind of the person who went on to take their life.I would also like to pay respect to Sir Grant Hammond who was the member of the Law Commission who worked on this the most and gave us advice on the reporting of suicide. We have had law around the reporting of suicide for some time. It has prevented what would most be of interest and helpful not only to professionals but also to the public in the investigation and the understanding of suicide. They have been prevented from being able to do that. Then there have been breaches that have been unable to be constrained as well. The previous speaker Peeni Henare made the point for instance that social media took over and breached all the laws around the publication of matters around suicide. Mainstream media which would have had some sort of integrity and credibility and could have been the vehicle for getting some facts out into the public domain were prevented from doing so under threat of prosecution. So the advice that Sir Grant Hammond has given has been very very helpful.I would also like to pay respects to a group of young South Taranaki people who have recently over the last week ridden the length of the South Island and raised $150000 towards supporting people affected by suicide. This came out of a South Taranaki situation. One of the women Nicola Symes who is very involved in the arrangement of that event lived in a community called Manutahi and within her own family was affected by the suicide of close relatives including her husband. She then grasped the nettle and raised the awareness. In this small community within a 5-year period there were about six different suicides of people mainly from the farming community. You can imagine then that within this small community which incorporates only about 50 different farms it had a huge effect on the local community.There has been some discussion around recommendations and whether or not there should be mandatory responses. I have to say that this is something that we thought about long and hard. The problem was that various coroners have differing results differing recommendations from similar deaths and those recommendations frequently conflicted. If one looked for instance at the recommendations made around cycling deaths or around quad bike deaths they conflict with each other quite frequently and often the coroners making those reports went far beyond the facts surrounding the particular death that they were investigating.I have to say that and I know time is short my main theme around this particular bill and what needs to happen in respect of coroners’ matters in the future is that we need to sort out the relationships. There has been an almost toxic relationship between coroners and pathologists over the years. There has been some strife between coroners and police—the ability for coroners for instance to direct the police to make inquiries which ran in conflict with the duties of the police to prosecute matters for instance. So effectively you had members of the judiciary being able to instruct the police to make inquiries but members of the executive such as the Minister of Police could not instruct the police to do absolutely anything.In the end though what we need to remember is this. All of us whether we be community members or people who have had a close association with these matters—such as myself as a police officer then as a lawyer and over that time as a funeral celebrant and then recently as a member of Parliament and a Minister with some sort of responsibility—need to remember this: who do we work for? We work for the public of New Zealand. They are the customers. Anything we can do to assist them in dealing with the tragedies that they are confronted with has to be good and it is incumbent on us to do all we can. Thank you.