Andersen GinnyJusticeGINNY ANDERSEN (Chairperson of the Justice Committee): Thank you Mr Chair. As the chair of the Justice Committee I'd like to take the opportunity to briefly outline what the Justice Committee heard at the time the Minister appeared before us. We held a separate hearing with each of the three Ministers—so with Minister Faafoi Minister of Justice but also with the Hon Marama Davidson as the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and also with the Hon Aupito William Sio as the Minister for Courts.One of the main issues that was addressed straight away was what was in the Budget and that included a significant increase in the amount of legal aid. We heard that in the 2021/22 appropriations $234.563 million was spent in terms of that and that's around 38 percent of all justice appropriations. Members were eager to understand why that had increased and the Minister explained that it was largely due to the complexity of cases as we see those come before the courts. We also heard about Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata which is the safe and effective cross-sector initiative overseen by the Ministry of Justice. A key part of this is to reduce family violence and sexual violence and the appropriation within that for family violence equates to approximately $13 million.The committee also heard of key pieces of legislation that are coming up which included repeal of the three-strikes law hate speech legislation as well as banning harmful conversion practices. Out of interest that will be concluding—those submissions which have been coming in thick and fast will be concluding—at midnight tonight in order for oral submissions to commence. The committee also heard about the effect of gangs and organised crime on the justice system. There were members concerned about the increase of gang members. The Minister outlined that the Government responses were multiple and two of those responses were the introduction of firearm prohibition orders as well as amending the proceeds of crime Act to make the seizure of assets associated with organised crime easier to be done.We also heard about one specific police operation which was Operation Trojan Shield which was concluded in July of this year. That particular operation saw that more than 35 people including senior members of the Waikato Comancheros the Waikato Mongrel Mob and the Head Hunters—and that also saw that a significant amount of money and contraband were confiscated under that. It was a good reminder the Minister stated to the committee—to the public—of the action that the ministry is taking to address serious organised crime in a range of ways. He did reiterate also that the Government is not only concerned about the number of gang members but also the amount of harm that that causes and the proceeds of those illicit activities and how that's targeted. He also stated that while New Zealand has always had a gang problem the influx of 501" deportees from Australia had made the situation far worse in terms of the type of behaviour we're seeing in those gang members.I would like to wind up by asking the Minister a question in relation to the current time we are in right now under COVID in level 4 and level 2 and particularly to understand the impact that has upon our court system when they are not able to operate. So my question to the Minister is: the current COVID alert level restrictions—what impact have they had on our justice system and how has our system appropriately responded?"