Andersen GinnyHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill. First I'd like to acknowledge my colleague Deborah Russell for continuing with this good bill and also my friend and former colleague Angie Warren-Clark who took on this bill when she was a member of Parliament in the previous Parliament. I'd like to acknowledge Ashley Jones for her strength and championship of such a good cause. I know that she worked with Chris Bishop on this initially as a petition and now it's taken the form of a member's bill. It's really important that we understand what we're doing when we're passing legislation and it's important to note that this bill really intends to reduce the harm that family violence causes in New Zealand by allowing a marriage or a civil union to be able to be dissolved if the person in that arrangement is a victim of family violence inflicted by the other party in the relationship. It was informed by the harrowing experiences that Angie Warren-Clark had supported in her experience of working front line in the family violence space and I think that it's really important to state that the conversations or the debates that we've been having across the House tonight is that everyone is of the view that every person in New Zealand deserves to live a life free of violence. Our laws and our social supports in all of our systems and in our democracy and our society should work towards achieving that goal and this bill is part of that overarching view. Addressing family violence is essential for improving the wellbeing of our families and for our tamariki and it is a priority for us here in Labour. The reason why this bill is needed has been clearly laid out. The original purpose behind the two-year wait period under the Family Proceedings Act was to provide a couple with the opportunity to take some time and to be certain of their decision to dissolve the marriage and that was typically a two-year time of being separate before a divorce was able to take place. I think it's important to note that family violence takes many forms. It's not just physical violence; it can also be financial it can be psychological it can take the way that children are spoken to and it can cause ongoing trauma for both partners and for the children involved in a situation that has turned out to be unhealthy for all those in a situation that's not working well. It's good to see that our law is taking cognisance of the fact that when situations become unhealthy sometimes things need to happen more quickly than a two-year period and as already noted tonight it's often in that two-year period when someone files for divorce that tensions can increase and those pressures that were already operating in the family unit can then become more harmful. So while the status quo has the benefit of simplicity it has been criticised for no longer reflecting the current societal values and there is real concern that that two-year wait period can be used to perpetuate financial disparities. It can unnecessarily prolong the time before parties can apply for a dissolution especially for those who have been subjected to ongoing physical or mental abuse. It's inappropriate for many people where they're waiting two years and that will not change the outcome particularly for those in abusive relationships—both for the partner and for the children in that relationship I think that applies. I've been really heartened tonight around the conversations we've been having across the House in terms of agreeing that family violence is a real blight on New Zealand in terms of enabling the next generation of young New Zealanders to be able to grow up and take full advantage of all the opportunities our beautiful country offers them. The complexities of some of the issues involved in a family violence situation are multiple. My real concern is that we currently have a situation in New Zealand where there are whānau and there are families in New Zealand who need help and want to access help and who need that support to either go through a divorce process or get that extra support and that currently is not available. I think that is something where if we can agree on so much tonight it would be good to get that agreement as well. I fully understand the fact that resources are stretched for police and that police are not the most appropriate people to be dealing with family violence situations. We have trained professionals who are the best to be doing that work but I personally would like to see those trained professionals up and ready and have a workforce in place before our police step back from attending family violence call-outs that are non-fatal. In fact Te Aorerekura has been a programme that identifies many of the issues identified by this bill and it's great to have seen the Minister responsible for the prevention of family violence pick up Te Aorerekura and look at how we grow our workforce and how we enable those workers to be able to assist families and children who are experiencing various forms of family violence. So I think it would be good to have had that plan in place before we were in a situation of having police pulling back from family violence because when that happens alongside of funding for Oranga Tamariki being pulled as well what we have are situations where the Minister has said that only those in State care are receiving that support—nothing more nothing less. That means that there are children who are in families where they are experiencing family violence and it is that advice and support of social services that would give counselling to mum or dad and that would give extra respite if they're going through a tough time that would enable that family to decide whether a divorce was necessary or not or to decide whether they were able to reconcile those differences or whether they're able to come together and get some extra help and advice on how to deal with parenting budget relationship—a whole range of issues. I think we owe it to those families to invest and to provide support when it's needed so that we don't need to call the police or we don't need an Oranga Tamariki uplift. I think that that would be a better outcome for the next generation of young people because the last thing that we'd want is the next generation of young people—we know that when we see youth crime peaking and we look into those statistics of that the vast majority of our repeat youth offenders have come from homes which have been exposed to repeat family violence instances. So having this bill and having an ability to say that a family unit is not working well and our young people are being unnecessarily exposed to family violence—if this bill can assist an intervention at an earlier stage and make those supports available then that has got to be a good thing. I would just like to acknowledge the work of family violence and those services that work alongside families to help them make decisions on whether a divorce is going to be the right path and whether they can draw upon this legislation to do that. They provide such vital services in New Zealand and I'd like to acknowledge that good work. Recently I was able to go and visit North Shore Women's Centre last week and talk to them about the vital work that they carry out in situations that this bill will directly relate to. It was really sad to hear that North Shore Women's Centre will be closing in April next year due to the fact that their contracts have been cut and that will mean that after 38 years of their supporting families and working on the North Shore they will not be able to continue to provide that level of support. So I'm pleased to see that we have agreement on this bill and that this bill will be able to give those families an opportunity to exit a marriage if there is family violence but at the same time I'm saddened that if there are families who want to work and try to discuss and have counselling to support issues that are relating to family violence critical services such as North Shore Women's Centre are no longer being funded to be able to operate in New Zealand and that is a real concern. If we want to reduce family violence we need to encourage people to report it. The number one reason people don't report it is that they have reached out for help before and they didn't get it and that's what the problem is. With police not attending and services not being available if people reach out for help and don't get it they won't ask again. We need as a country to be encouraging people to ask for help and when they ask for it they need to get it if we're serious about getting on top of family violence in New Zealand.