Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Obviously I'm standing in support of the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill but Madam Deputy Speaker I think you'll have to allow me just two seconds to say that I think Mr Little is actually one of the most committed Ministers in a generation to solve the scourge that is family violence. What I would like to say is that all the justice sector Ministers meet every week formally—that's Minister Davis for corrections myself for police Minister Little for justice and Minister Sio for youth justice—to talk about action plans we need to put in place and how we can all work together as a Government to solve the issue that is domestic violence. Jan Logie—you will find no one more committed in this country let alone in Parliament to deal with the scourge that is domestic violence. So I do not doubt the previous speaker's commitment to also coming up with solutions to domestic violence and I don't think anyone would question the Hon Mark Mitchell's credibility on this. We know he's an ex-policeman and he's probably seen a lot of the effects of domestic violence but what I would really like to say is—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! Look I'm sorry but we're now on to the third speaker and we're still debating the same stuff. What's happened has happened but we have a bill in front of us and I made it very clear that we're going to be debating the bill. If the member does not come to the bill then I will have to sit him down. Hon STUART NASH: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. For the last four minutes of the previous speaker's speech he sat here and he had a real go at the Minister of Justice and I think that as one of the justice sector Ministers—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I know—Hon STUART NASH: —I have a right to defend that Minister. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No because we've already—previous to that—had a Minister who had to take the call who clearly didn't know what the bill was actually doing and we had almost 10 minutes of a general speech given genuinely by the member about domestic violence. I made it very clear that we were one all. We're now going to address the bill. Hon STUART NASH: Well what does this bill actually do? Hon Dr Nick Smith: Damned good question. Hon STUART NASH: Damned good question and obviously that former Minister has no idea. Hon Dr Nick Smith: I do. Hon STUART NASH: No you—what this bill actually does is it seeks to break the pattern of family violence and to reduce harm and costs inflicted on those who suffer violence in wider New Zealand society including by increasing the link and the needs assessment and services by more accurately recording family violence offending in the criminal justice system and by enabling the introduction of codes of practice and new information-sharing provisions. Well how bad are things? Let me tell you how bad things are at the moment. The police every single year attend about 125000 domestic violence incidents. In the past they would spend about five or 10 minutes on each incident; now they are spending up to two hours on each incident. This is taking a substantial amount of police time—Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's just rubbish. Hon STUART NASH: —a substantial amount of police time—and Dr Smith says that is absolute rubbish. I am happy to organise a briefing from police for Dr Smith about how seriously they take this and what they are actually doing. I actually believe and most people believe that family violence is our nation's shame. It really is. Five hundred thousand instances of family violence—500000 family violence instances—are committed every year and we need to do something about it. One thing that I would love more than anything is for Parliament to come together to work as 120 MPs to come up with a solution. This is a good bill. I'm not saying that this is a bad bill. This is a good bill but it is a start. There is no such thing as a silver bullet around solving the scourge that is domestic violence. This bill acknowledges that early intervention is key to addressing family violence—the need to identify and manage risks before they escalate to cause serious harm. Early intervention helps disrupt what we now know is a pattern of behaviour in relationships. What we now know for example is that a child's brain is wired differently if they have grown up in a house where violence is prevalent. Their brain is wired differently—this is this whole fight versus flight—and I do agree that growing up in a household with family violence is no excuse for them becoming a perpetrator. But what we do know is that those who have been victims of family violence and certainly those who have grown up around family violence are more likely to become perpetrators. We need to break the cycle and there is a lot of work to be done—of that there is no doubt. Changing legislation and amending different Acts is important—there is no doubt about that. This is an ongoing challenge that we will all face and I know that Jan Logie is spending an inordinate amount of time and effort and energy driving the change that we need to see. But this is only part of it and I agree with Minister Sio that as well as legislation and as well as what this bill does it will actually take an attitudinal change in our communities—that is saying it's not acceptable. I know we've seen the ads and all this sort of stuff but it's a little bit more than that. It's when you're hearing the screaming from the neighbours next door—instead of pulling the curtains and going Nothing to do with me." you actually call the police. One thing I would say Madam Deputy Speaker—and I know the Deputy Speaker is a former Minister of Police—is that the police are taking this incredibly seriously these days. I have sat in on an Integrated Safety Response (ISR) panel and I have seen how inter-agencies work together to try and come up with solutions on how we're going to put programmes in place to stop perpetrators going on and significantly—end up murdering people. In fact since ISR has been going in Christchurch no one has died from family violence.Now I know you've given direction Madam Deputy Speaker but I would just like to say to the former speaker that the ISR programme is still operating. There are still five months to go until the end of the year. We have not said we're not going to continue with this pilot but what we have said is that any programme that spends taxpayers' money has to be evidence based. We are evaluating this programme at the moment and if it comes out that it is a good use of taxpayers' money that it is really making a difference in this space and can continue to make a difference then I have no doubt that Jan Logie will present something to us to say she recommends that this continues—I have no doubt about this—but it has got to be evidence based. Please Madam Deputy Speaker and everyone listening I would not like people to get the impression that this is no longer happening.I would also really reiterate that we are completely committed to this. Police are absolutely committed to this. In fact police fund ISR out of their own budget. Police fund Whangaia out of their own budget. Every single year police see 124000 instances of family harm and it is not acceptable any more—it really isn't.So as mentioned we can change legislation and that's good. It is good that we can work together in a way—because this was the former administration's bill. We've made a few changes the Justice and Electoral Committee's made a few changes and there's been a Supplementary Order Paper that's been tabled. We will work together. Minister Little extended an invitation across the House to the Opposition spokespeople on police on justice and on corrections and said "Come along and hear what people have to say. We would welcome your input." So he extended an olive branch in a way that I haven't seen in my time in this House and I just do hope that we can work together as a Parliament to do something about the scourge that is domestic violence. I have absolutely no doubt—I don't want to speak on behalf of Parliamentary Under-Secretary Logie but I have no doubt that if those from the Opposition parties are keen to participate in a meaningful and constructive way then we will absolutely welcome their input because this is something that we do need to get to the bottom of and it's not going to happen overnight. There is absolutely no doubt about that. In fact as mentioned this is going to take generational change but it is one of those things where if we bury our head in the sand and say it's all too hard then we do the communities we serve a massive disservice.So of course we support this bill. Of course we are going to implement everything in this bill but there is a lot more to do. In fact this is only the beginning. Thank you very much."