Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise and take a call on the Military Justice Legislation Amendment Bill. As a former member of the New Zealand Defence Force a former lawyer and now a National member of Parliament what could be more exciting than to combine all those interests in speaking to this bill which was of course introduced to the House by the previous defence Minister. I acknowledge him along with the current defence Minister for their shepherding of the legislation thus far and I look forward with interest to the next stages of it.I wish to address the notion of balance. It seems to me that the bill while potentially with some possible improvements to be made at the select committee stage—we should always allow ourselves that possibility—does seem to me to provide some welcome balance in a couple of key areas. The first is between military and civilian jurisdictions the balance being the alignment of those two to the extent that's appropriate. Previous speakers have made mention of that already so I won't labour that point any further.Similarly a balance between the rights of victims and offenders—naturally in any justice system criminal or otherwise a balance between the rights of the parties involved is crucially important. In relation to victims it's already been well noted by a previous speaker who said that it should not make any difference to a victim whether an offence or an alleged offence took place within the military context or not. So it seems to me to be sensible to protect the rights of him or her to have the kinds of changes that this bill will be making.Similarly but on the other side of the coin in relation to offenders balance is somewhat restored between the traditional notions of onus of proof and if anything—if I may make a side note Madam Assistant Speaker—it seems quite telling actually that we've had this anomaly on our statute book for some time and it's not been raised. It's not something that I was aware of and perhaps that's a tribute to the sense of military discipline that our forces have that they haven't raised it before now.Balance too between tradition and new ways: I acknowledge the previous speaker Louisa Wall for a very interesting treatise on the historical aspects of military law. It seems to me that some balance is needed to acknowledge the tradition and to respect that as far as is appropriate but also to recognise that new ways are appropriate even in an institution as traditionally focused as the Defence Force sometimes is.Finally balance between the separateness and the togetherness—between the worlds of the Defence Force which in some ways is often physically separate but also recognises that it is part of the broader New Zealand society. So again it seems to me that the aims of the bill and indeed its provisions are very suitable in that regard.Finally please allow me Madam Assistant Speaker to acknowledge the members of the Defence Force those who serve here and overseas. I hope that this amendment bill will find favour with them. I look forward to hearing their contributions and indeed those of others in the House and other submitters at the select committee process. In doing so I commend the bill to the House.