SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. I take a call at the second reading of the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill. I addressed the House at the first reading of this bill. During that first reading debate I reiterate again this evening I said that this bill despite its good intentions and the purpose to reduce delays in Family Court proceedings so the court process works better for participants particularly children—this is just somewhat a bit of a patch it hatchet band-aid job with respect. I say that because the appointment of a Family Court Associate will help alleviate those delays only in part. The alleviation will be to do with the administrative workload of Family Court judges. At the first reading speech I gave in this House I talked about the solution as one that would need to be multi-layered and multi-tiered. The appointment of Family Court Associates is just band-aiding or assisting the burden of the paperwork in the administration of the court process and system. That is not going to remedy the overall efficiency that's required for the Family Court and with the review that has been recommended by the select committee for this to come back in a couple of years' time to see the efficacy and the impact of this legislation—time will tell. But the whole essence of the Family Court proceedings with our children who are in the main the subject of those proceedings—the time frames of proceedings have impacts on children. Those of us who have children and those of us who have worked in the area with children know that the concept of a child's time sense is very different to that of the adult world. So time is so critical and important particularly with children who are the subject of Family Court proceedings. At this second reading it's a case where the Justice Committee has with a keen ear hopefully applied what they have listened to from these submitters. There were submissions from 31 interest groups and individuals with oral evidence heard from 14 submitters. The committee with a keen ear from listening to those submissions from people who know better than most of the politicians in this House because they work in the sector and then applying through the eye in detail of the written proposed legislation—hopefully this bill before the House may be improved as a result of those submissions. It's noted in the Justice Committee report returned back to this House that there have been a number of recommendations to amend the bill and that will be addressed at the third reading with those amendments factored in and taken into account. There have been a number of amendments as a result of listening with a keen ear and applying that with a keen eye to the amendments at the committee of the whole House—it would be considered to be done with prudence. So the amendments have been detailed in the Justice Committee. I wasn't a member of that committee. My colleagues the Hon Paul Goldsmith the Hon Mark Mitchell and Simon O'Connor with my colleague Chris Penk taking part in consideration because he is our spokesperson for courts—the bill will be improved as a result of submissions that have been made. But as I say and I again reiterate from my first reading contribution this bill does nothing to address the root cause of the issues which is an inefficient court system. The appointment of Family Court Associates is only going to in part address some of the workload of judges. I have also iterated in this House before that there are more proceedings coming before the court because we are living in a society that is becoming regrettably more dysfunctional with the complexity of issues that are weighted and burdened and to be borne and carried by families. In this time of crises—a cost of living crisis—the flow-on effect will be to the family units. The flow-on effect will be bearing out with the impact as it is on our children and childcare and protection issues. Again that will all wait and come back to the Family Court—domestic violence family violence. That's been proven with what the fallout of COVID has been and now we're going to just await the hit and the fallout of the cost of living crisis which comes back to our families and then it will come back to be borne evidence with proceedings in the Family Court. The other concern is that essentially this role of a Family Court Associate is one of a junior role. I've talked before and reiterated the importance of the appointment of more Family Court judges. Mention has been made in the House and I do acknowledge Judges Tahana and Williams both appointed to the Family Court. I served with Tanya Blyth Williams—she is now a judge; Judge Williams—who was a Family Court lawyer and we've both practised and specialised in child advocacy as counsel for children. So it's critical that we have people who are experienced and have practised in the field but importantly that we listen to what they do convey to us as parliamentarians politicians in our role and service as public servants and listen to what they share with us as to how things could be better addressed solutions and remedies. Despite the good intent and purpose of this legislation it really is just band-aiding a very complex multi-tiered multi-layered system. It's not just in the Family Court but we see it in the District Court the criminal court the Youth Court our Māori Land Court. Reference and mention has been made to attempts to improve and make better but the fallout and the offshoot of that is if we're just going to slap on a band-aid and address just a part of that system we're going to soon see that band-aid being torn off and the festering of that wound underneath because it hasn't been properly excised. So it sounds all rather grim. The whole point and purpose and intent is to make this better but the message that's being conveyed loud and clear is if we're going to do a job—if the Government is going to do a job—do the job properly and make sure that it's not just piecemeal. This is an overall complex system that requires that overall complexity of experience and taking into account that we are not just dealing with judges; we are dealing with judges who are working within an infrastructure that is inappropriate. The configuration of the courts the use of technology is not being efficient-sized—it's not being used as well as it ought to be. So the appointment of Family Court Associates may seem all well and good. As I say time will tell. With that at the second reading the National Party is supporting this bill and at the committee of the whole House the amendments proposed under the select committee report after submissions have been factored in—to be duly done so at that stage. I commend the bill to the House.