Faafoi Kris: Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9727. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Taloha ni Mr Chairperson. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to Part 1 of the Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill. I just want to begin where the Hon Phil Goff left off because the Minister in the chair the Hon Chester Borrows is someone who is a very good Minister and someone whom this side of the Chamber respects. I would like to just carry on what Mr Goff said and praise Chester Borrows for the way in which he has tackled this Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill because it has been absolutely textbook—absolutely textbook. You could not do it any better. If I were the Hon Judith Collins and the Hon Amy Adams I would be making an appointment with the Hon Chester Borrows just to discuss how the process should work in this New Zealand parliamentary democracy because the Hon Chester Borrows has done this textbook. He has gone out and he has assessed the situation he has consulted and he has put before this House a very good piece oflegislation. That went through the select committee scrutiny stage people submitted and gave their concerns he listened the select committee amended the legislation and that has been supported by the Minister and now this legislation is before the Committee being debated.As you have seen this is in contrast to the two previous pieces of legislation that were immediately before this Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill. An outbreak of aroha has happened because of the way that this process has been put through this House. If you were watching the House roughly 15 hours ago you would have seen absolutely robust debate in fierce opposition to the legislation that was going through this House. But now because of the way that the Hon Chester Borrows has shepherded this legislation through this House in a textbook manner with cross-party coordination and consultation to make sure that this piece of legislation is fit for purpose you are seeing that this piece of legislation has very wide support. I did want to just commend the Minister in the chair for the way he has done this because I think that at least two of his colleagues—at least two of his colleagues—could certainly learn from the way he has shepherded this piece of legislation through the House.I did want to point to a section of the Criminal Procedure Legislation Bill that I think will seriously address the issues that the bill sets out to address and I think Mr Goff pointed out those issues and that is the seriously excessive costs of the criminal procedure system the complexity of the criminal procedure system and also the serious delays that are happening within our court system at the moment. The Justice and Electoral Committee has inserted new clause 14A I believe which allows a judge or registrar to waive certain fees if they are satisfied that someone is unable to or should not be required to pay those fees. I think that is certainly something that will help in the process of equality of justice to help get those people where costs may be a hindrance to them getting a fair trial through the justice system through the criminal procedure system much much more easily. So I did want to commend the Justice and Electoral Committee for that change.Again it is one of those changes that have been made with cross-party support and again I did want to commend the Minister in the chair and the chair of the select committee Scott Simpson who is someone who should also get some praise for the way that this process has worked. Look at the way that has happened in that select committee process and the contrast of that in terms of what we are going to see through a truncated select committee process for the two pieces of intelligence legislation that are going through the House at the moment. There is also new clause 14B which is going to make it much easier for people to access court documents. I think that goes to the heart of addressing the issue of the complexity of the criminal procedure system where a lot of people who are going through that system were finding it very difficult to manoeuvre their way around the complexity of the system.Just before I finish I just want to reiterate again and congratulate the Hon Chester Borrows on this textbook manner in which he has done it. There has been assessment the drafting of appropriate legislation and the select committee has gone out and listened and made the appropriate amendments and we believe that the Hon Amy Adams and the Hon Judith Collins should take heed of the process that has been put in place here with the Hon Chester Borrows and look for some time in his diary.Part 1 agreed to.