Dean JacquiJACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): I am sad to hear that the Labour Opposition will not be supporting this bill. I want to acknowledge all of those families in New Zealand who have suffered a sudden death in the family whether it be by accident or by some other means. I want to acknowledge the bravery of those families who were prepared to come to Parliament to give witness in front of our committee which helped inform our deliberations. I want to acknowledge their grief and I want to confirm to them that despite what is going to be a split vote on this bill which I do regret very much Parliament has listened. I believe that today we will be passing a bill that for future families of victims of a sudden death who are subject to a coronial investigation that coronial investigation will be more timely and it will be more efficient. The families will be kept better informed. The coroner's comments will be directed more closely towards the matter at hand. I would like to think that the measures that this Government is proposing and will soon pass into law will have a small but none the less positive impact on those families. I want also to thank members of the select committee including the Opposition members who now find themselves opposing this bill for their generally thoughtful contributions to what we finally have before us. Indeed there are points of difference between the parties. But I think that those points of difference which seem to mainly centre on sudden deaths in custody deaths of personnel in times of conflict and something as simple as requiring a response to coronial recommendations I do not see as the basis for opposing this bill—I really do not. What I see in this bill is a piece of legislation that as I have outlined will make a number of beneficial changes to the way grieving families are able to respond to the findings in an unexplained or sudden death. I will go through the main provisions of the bill. As I also said coroners' recommendations will now be required to be specific to the case and the evidence that is before the coroner and to be very clear about how they could or would reduce the likelihood of future deaths in similar circumstances. I do know from people who have approached me and others that often the family of the person who is deceased just simply does not want it to happen again. They want a little bit of comfort in knowing that through the inquest process changes will be made and lessons will be learnt. The bill will give better tools to—and will require the Chief Coroner to—improve timeliness such as the requirement to report and monitor progress in older cases. The legislation will reduce duplication with other investigating agencies by giving the Chief Coroner the ability to direct that a coronial investigation is not required and that is when we come to deaths in custody for example or deaths while on active duty. The bill will clarify which deaths are reported to the coroner and in particular the jurisdiction to investigate overseas deaths and deaths of New Zealand Defence Force members caught in enemy action. That was a sticking point for the Opposition but we always have to remember that it is not in New Zealand's interests to disclose matters of national security. I do not know whether that point has been well enough regarded by the Opposition. There are also new recommendations to improve and simplify the legislative restrictions on suicide reporting in the media. That is a very important part of the bill. It has not been contentious but it has I believe a wide-ranging impact on suicide reporting. We do not want copycat suicides in New Zealand and so these restrictions will go some way I hope—there are penalties and greater penalties for breaches of this but I believe that the new restrictions on suicide reporting are a very important and good part of this bill. I am very pleased that this bill will be coming into force very soon. The reason I am pleased about this is that it will provide comfort to those people who have been bereaved. Thank you.