Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair. A number of the contributions from the Labour members that were on the select committee I think have answered their own questions because we did come to agreement around these very difficult balances. So the thing I want to put back on the record is the clear policy intent in the drafting of this bill in my name. That is very simply that in these cases the hearing of the finding not guilty" is just so appalling for the victims. I want to explain why because it's very connected to why the use of the word "proven" in the finding was so critical. Yes I accept the select committee tussled with it for quite some time both the first time and the second time and the "proven" is really important. I'm not going to traverse the details of the cases because I know that the victims some of them shared their stories for the very first time. So I want to honour them by not going into the detail of what occurred. But the reality is there is zero doubt about who committed the act. Yes they were found not criminally responsible because they were found to be insane at the time that the act or offence occurred. But the very simple reality is that no one else is being looked for. And in the most harsh examples—and I refer to my constituent the death of his brother there was only one person who committed the act that took his brother's life. That's why in terms of the finding the removal of "not guilty" was critical from a policy perspective to deliver the intent of the bill as was the word "proven". The other thing that I want to put on record and it has been referred to by many of my colleagues who worked so diligently with me to get this bill right was the need to balance the person who had been found to be insane and their needs as well as the victims' needs. One of the interesting comments that came through this process was how confusing it is both for the victim and for the person that's been found to be insane to have heard "not guilty" because the finding was "not guilty" but then that person was taken into the custody of the Ministry of Health as a special patient. For some of those special patients hearing the words "not guilty" added to their confusion in terms of why their liberties as they knew it were being constrained. I think that we managed that balance of the really important needs of the person with a severe level of mental illness to be found to be insane—I think we very carefully balanced their needs and their rights as well as the rights of the victims.Coming to the question about the victims' notification of impending leave. There was another item of business that was before the Justice Committee and that was a petition in the name of Wendy Strawbridge. That petition was dealt with in parallel to my member's bill. And again I want to acknowledge the Justice Committee for making that decision to handle them in parallel because Wendy Strawbridge was a community nurse and attempted murder was the charge that the man who attacked her faced in court. He was found to be not guilty on account of insanity. But what was most destructive for her and why she was so motivated to put the petition to Parliament was that without any knowledge without any information the special patient who attacked her and very nearly killed her was then released unescorted into the same community that she lived in. Had this been a criminal in the justice system she would have been notified as a victim. So again very careful consideration was made in terms of balancing the needs of the special patient and making sure there was nothing that we decided in the select committee that would be detrimental to their recovery and their health and that balanced the needs with the victims' to be safe in their own community. At this point I want to also acknowledge the work of the officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health who grappled with some pretty challenging issues in balancing it out. And I think with the considerable efforts of the select committee members we struck that balance right."