Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice): Madam Chair thank you for the chance to speak to the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill. Can I acknowledge all parties in the House who have contributed to second reading speeches which I think on the whole were very supportive of the thrust of this piece of legislation—to make the experience of those who have experienced sexual violence or allegedly experienced to have a much better experience of the court process in order to ensure that we don't retraumatise victims as part of that court process.This piece of legislation has come about by two reviews by the Law Commission in 2015 and one undertaken and delivered back under my predecessor the Hon Andrew Little in 2019. My recollection of the second reading debate again was relatively overwhelming support for most of the components of this piece of legislation. But some debate and concern around fair trial rights around two clauses within the piece of legislation—around clause 8 and clause 14 I believe. Clause 8 is around the admissibility of evidence about a complainant's sex life and a higher threshold in which evidence can be brought into the court process—about the particulars of a complainant's sexual experience with someone who is a defendant or parties who might be a defendant other than to state or claim of fact that there has been sexual experience between the complainant and defendant or defendants. There has been some concern around that from the legal fraternity and from Opposition parties around the obligations under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act around fair trial rights. I would point out—because they obviously made at the second reading stage a plea for a change of policy within this piece of legislation—we do believe that the bill as it stands does protect the rights of defendants and gives judges the discretion in cases where further information or further evidence may need to be gleaned about particular instances between the complainant and a defendant. That can be done to ensure that a fair trial is heard.The other clause in Part 1 that was cause for debate was around clause 14 and the ability for claimants or propensity witnesses to be able to give evidence by means other than appearing in the court physically itself. This isn't necessarily something new but under this piece of legislation again based on work undertaken by the Law Commission it would be a right for complainants and propensity witnesses to give evidence by way of video or other technology prior to the trial occurring. Again some concern around that around fair trial rights. I would also point out again that we believe that the legislation as it stands and aspects of the current regime enable the judiciary to have discretion about for example the ability to call a witness again for cross-examination if the judge deems that fit. So that is why and that's a rationale for not making any changes that are sought through the Opposition Supplementary Order Papers or the requests in the second reading speeches or the extensive lobbying and public campaigning by some in the legal fraternity.The heart of this legislation is to ensure that we have safe environments in which people can feel they can come forward to make complaints in order for complainants to feel that they are not retraumatised and in essence to get to the point before they get to a court case to feel comfortable to come forward. Certainly the feedback from both of those Law Commission reports is that there is an issue with the ability of people being confident to come forward to make complaints about sexual violence—because of concern around what would happen in terms of retraumatisation in a court trial because of concerns around what might happen in terms of questioning for example.On that that's just an opening statement to kind of lay the foundation for what I'm sure will be a number of questions around Part 1 around those contentious clauses. But again I would reiterate: I think on the whole most of the House agreed with the thrust of the components of this piece of legislation.