Hayes JoJO HAYES (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I stand to take a call. I might end up taking two in a row actually because I want to also add my thinking around the insidious nature of domestic violence—or any violence against somebody else actually. What I want to talk about is strengthening this bill and I believe that our Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 41 under the name of the Hon Mark Mitchell will actually enhance this bill. Even though I've sat and I've listened to what the Government members have said—you know It's no good; it's nothing"—I think that we need to actually take a step back stop being so aggro towards one of our SOPs from the Opposition and start to look at this with an open mind because we are dealing not just with the victims of domestic violence but also with their families as well.I've sat here and I've listened to the member in the chair Jan Logie talking about the value of small to medium sized businesses gaining some education around domestic violence. So when I look at the bill and I see the SOP under the name of Mark Mitchell around clause 14 we're looking at in new Subpart 5 of Part 2 of the Holidays Act inserting proposed new section 72B "Interpretation" of the parts of "domestic violence". One of the areas in the Domestic Violence Act 1995 section 3 actually describes what "violence" is. We've heard about small businesses and medium businesses needing some education so in that particular part of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 it actually just gives a definition around what "violence" is. That alone should help in the education of employers around giving them an idea of what violence is. In the next part of section 3 it talks about the victims' children and what they're subjected to and I think that needs to be inserted into this bill because—as I heard the Minister of Police the Hon Stuart Nash just talking about—the victims' children actually witness this violence actually happening in their families towards their mother and/or their father because whilst women are the majority of victims of domestic violence there is also a small portion of those victims that are men as well. I believe that in this bill we want to protect not just the victim of domestic violence but also their whānau.As I said by inserting section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 into this bill it will actually help number one with the education for small and medium sized businesses without them actually even leaving to go and start some education programmes—especially through the organisation Shine—but it will also give them an idea of what they're actually looking for. Some may understand what domestic violence victims may look like but the majority of them will not know and I think that this particular section in the Act will actually help to identify that. I think it will strengthen this bill and I'm asking the member in the chair in whose name this bill is under to actually consider putting that particular part into the bill to actually strengthen the bill.The other section that I want to talk about is the proposed replacement section 72C to Part 2 new Subpart 5. We look at subsection (3). "The request must—" is what the subsection starts at and it's "(a) state that the request is made under this subpart; and (b) state—(i) the employee's name; … (ii) the date on which the request is made; and"—this new insertion is paragraph (c)—"provide appropriate evidence verifying the request." Now this isn't meant to sound like we're getting at people saying—we're not saying to them that what they're saying is incorrect. What we're asking them to do is to be able to provide some information to the employer so the employer makes an informed decision around the type of leave that that person will get.Not everybody shows up to work as a domestic violence victim with bruising. Some of them are psychologically bruised. Some of these people they show up to work—the victims of domestic violence—and they're not physically bruised but they are inside and that is what the employer doesn't see. They cannot see that. Therefore with a discussion and an interview between the employee and the employer it will actually help for the employer to actually be able to grant leave to their employee.So I think that what we're asking for isn't unreasonable. We want to strengthen this bill and we do support victims of domestic violence. I think these are very sensible changes or inclusions. They're not new things. They're already in legislation but by adding them into this bill it actually gives strength to this bill. It protects the victims of domestic violence it protects their families and at the end of the day—as we have heard many times in this House—if children are surrounded by domestic violence right from birth and right through their lives it affects them as adults. It actually can move in towards generational domestic violence and that's what we want to stop at the end of the day isn't it? Everybody in this Chamber must agree that we want to stop that generational cycle of domestic violence. By including these parts into this bill I believe that it will make it a better and stronger bill. Thank you Mr Chair."