Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Madam Speaker. I wouldn't say it's a pleasure but it is a privilege to take a call on this bill tonight and I acknowledge my colleague Angie Warren-Clark who is the member who is progressing this bill through the House. Like other speakers can I also acknowledge Ashley Jones for her bravery and tenacity bringing a petition to this House and seeing this through and being willing to tell her story publicly because that requires a significant amount of bravery. I think most members in this House will have experiences and stories that they can share that would explain why a bill of this nature is so important and I certainly have one. When I moved to Nelson where I'm the MP now nearly 15 years ago the first friend I made when I moved to Nelson who is now my very best of friends—we became good friends and within a couple of weeks of that friendship beginning it became clear to me that she had sought me out because she needed to leave her relationship. It has led to years and years of both my husband and I providing support to this very dear friend of mine and her wonderful children. She still hasn't actually finalised that divorce yet she suffered for years and years and from time to time today still suffers as a result of that. There were so many circumstances where protection orders were breached where rocks were thrown through windows into children's bedrooms in the dead of night and nails put under my husband's and my car tyres things that can't really be mentioned were left in people's letterboxes people were chased with vehicles and people were threatened and assaulted in multiple ways. If a law like this had been in place at the time it would have been so incredible and it would have created so much freedom for her for the fact that it doesn't require the respondent to agree; it just requires there to be that protection order sitting in place that has been put in place by a court. I think that this is why so many of us come to this House. It is because there are so many stories of people where it's actually so clear that the law needs to change to make people's lives safer and to bring justice to people and to make children's lives safer. It would have made my friend's life and her children's lives much much safer if she had been able to dissolve the marriage at the time that her protection order was put in place. It also had a massive impact on issues to do with matrimonial property because there were so many threats that if the divorce was carried out more violence would occur or that the issues to do with matrimonial property would be held up would be fought back against. So it was used as another form of power and control in the relationship.So I really do commend my colleague and the many MPs who I know have a background in this area and who have worked on this bill. It is good to see that there is support across the House for this bill tonight. As the bill states everyone should have the right to have a life free of violence. It's fundamental I think to what we all believe in in this country and anything that we can do as a House to improve the law so that people's stories aren't just stories they actually have meaning in terms of changing law—that is why we are here. We come to this place to make New Zealand a better place for people who are suffering an injustice.So my thanks again to Ashley for bringing your story to us. Often through members' days this is where we are taking bills like this through the House on behalf of people who have shared a story and inspired a law change. So I thank you for doing this. It will mean a lot to a lot of people in New Zealand and I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Angie Warren-Clark—five minutes in reply.