Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Well thank you very much Madam Speaker and I'm glad to rise to speak on the Victims of Family Violence (Strengthening Legal Protections) Legislation Bill and the Victims of Sexual Violence (Strengthening Legal Protections) Legislation Bill. As we've heard from speakers that have come before we are aware acutely that the implications around the increase of both family harm but also family violence have significantly increased during and post the period of COVID. I think it is fair to say that many commentators have referred to this as the shadow pandemic in which we've seen family harm actually increase more than 60 percent under this Government's watch.Those statistics are horrifying at one level but the reality is that one in three women in this country based on some of the latest statistics will experience physical or sexual violence within the household. And when one increases that to include psychological and economic abuse then that is one in two women in this country. That is something that we should be hanging our heads in shame in regards to. Those statistics are catastrophic in the context of our community and our society. What's also interesting is that one in eight men are also reporting family violence being experienced or being victims of family violence.So this is the backdrop of the environment and our communities in which we currently are part of. It is clear that the National Party support any efforts in regards to reducing and mitigating the implications and effects of both family violence but also in regards to sexual violence. This must be done with a degree of priority and a need to increase the pace of change and the pace of resolution to what is a growing issue because it is not the New Zealand that I believe any of us envisages—to have that degree of proportionality of our population that is subject to such violence and abuse. The implications of that for future generations are wide ranging and are much broader than within the criminal justice section.We know that many of these examples go unreported. As a volunteer ambulance officer and someone who still occasionally is out on the road sadly I have seen and do see the implications often and it's probably—based on the number of people reporting—a very small wedge of those that actually are reported. The reality is that this is going on. It is going on within our communities and it is going on within our cities regions and provinces. And we need as a House to be very acutely aware that we need to do everything within our power in order to mitigate and reduce this and clearly send the signal that this has no place in our society and has no tolerance and we should be deploying all means and mechanisms in order to deal with that.So I am hopeful in regards to this piece or these two pieces of legislation that once they move through to the select committee process that we get a wide range of feedback from those that understand the sector and provide recommendations in order to ensure the thoroughness of this legislation is appropriate. We must ensure that the legislation lessens the trauma on children in particular those under the age of 12 who are completely vulnerable in this regard. We have an obligation to protect them and do everything within our power to protect them because they are our future.National will be strongly supporting this bill. We will be strongly supporting any initiatives in order to minimise and mitigate and remove this risk and issue from society and we will be commending this bill and looking forward to seeing it passed through in the next Parliament. Thank you.