Dean JacquiJACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): I want to thank the previous speaker David Parker for his good summary of the provisions of this Evidence Amendment Bill. As we work our way through the third reading—which means that we are getting ever closer to the enactment of this important piece of legislation—I just want to preface a few comments about the contents of this bill with a number of other initiatives that this Government has undertaken to put the victim at the heart of the justice system and in particular the provisions in this bill pertaining to protecting children as they give witness in court trials. We have already done a number of measures to support the fight against family violence. There was the introduction of police safety orders to help manage family violence situations. We have up to 1000 victims of family violence who are now kept safe in their own homes and that is by way of the new National Home Safety Service. With some very simple interventions like alarm systems locks on windows and doors and other measures this has allowed victims—who for some considerable time have felt fearful and afraid—to now feel safe in their homes for the very first time. There is a ministerial group with Ministers from across 16 portfolios that is focusing on family and sexual violence which will oversee a whole-of-Government strategy for addressing family and sexual violence and of course recently announced last week is a complete overhaul of family violence laws. I do expect and hope that the select committee in charge if it is the Justice and Electoral Committee will consider that bill with a lot of serious attention. For the third reading of this Evidence Amendment Bill I will not go into too much detail about the main provisions. In the third reading with agreement across the House I think the provisions have been well rehearsed over the course of the passage of this bill. I do just want to touch on the provisions around the changes in court processes for those vulnerable witnesses and in particular children. It is about the presumption that child witnesses give evidence in alternative ways and have a right to a support person. Currently under the Evidence Act the prosecutor has to apply to the court for the use of alternative ways of giving evidence and the judge must then give her or his permission for a child witness to have a support person. One of the very strong recommendations of the Law Commission and one of the very strong submissions made to the Justice and Electoral Committee when we were considering this bill was that fundamentally this was a provision that needed to be brought up to date to recognise the rights and needs of vulnerable children when they are required to give evidence in court. Along with the presumption that all child witnesses will use alternative ways of giving evidence it also gives children the right to have a support person. For those two provisions alone it is a very good reason for us to enact this bill not with undue haste but I think with all speed. It is a bill that enjoys wide support through this House—and so it should do—because this bill better protects vulnerable witnesses while also ensuring that evidence is heard and handled appropriately and securely. Look we never can legislate our way out of the pain and suffering felt by victims but what this Parliament is doing rightly is ensuring that vulnerable victims and witnesses are better supported through their participation in the justice process. Again I again want to acknowledge the hard work of the Justice and Electoral Committee and with those comments I commend this bill to the House.