SpeechTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. You can tell that it's serious by the tone of the contributions in the House. Sometimes in this place we are loud and boisterous and we are looking forward to a good old head to head. But when you're talking about things like family violence it becomes really serious. You can tell that because all of the contributions that have been held in the House tonight have had a certain tone about them because we all know that family violence is real and that it's in our communities. I look around the House and I think about the different areas of the country that we all represent but actually it doesn't matter which part of the country that we represent. This is an issue that means a lot to New Zealand and it is befitting that we're able to stand here and talk about family violence in an open and honest way as parliamentarians to talk about this bill sitting in front of us at the moment.Can I thank Angie Warren-Clark who has been a comrade of mine since 2017 when we first came into this House. She's brought this bill to the House which has been great but we knew when she came in that she was passionate about family violence and making sure that we were doing as much as we could as a Government to be able to turn around the plight that women face against abusive partners.We know that it is prevalent. I visited Tauranga Women's Refuge and I've seen the work that they do in Rotorua where I live. I've seen the work that the Rotorua Women's Refuge—Waiariki Women's Refuge—do in our space looking after women who for better or worse have found themselves in an abusive relationship and are looking for support and comfort from people who have worked in the sector. Whether you've been the chief executive officer of a woman's refuge like my colleague has or whether or not you are just a member of the community it's really really important. Today I was delighted to see a press release from the Hutt Valley Women's Refuge talking about exactly what we're talking about tonight in terms of this bill and talking about the plight of a person called Ashley Jones who left her marriage in 2020. She was then subject to the rigmarole the process of having to go through to be able to divorce her partner who was clearly abusive who she no longer wanted to be with in a committed relationship who had broken the vows of being a good and honest and faithful partner. She wanted out of that relationship.What happened was that she was subject to blockades at every turn. She was subject to the process and the agencies saying that she had almost like a stand-down period to be able to work this through" with her partner. It was through her frustration that she rallied and it was the Hutt Valley Women's Refuge that came to meet with parliamentarians and politicians to say: this should no longer be something that we have to deal with. If you have a woman that is clearly from an abusive relationship and wants to exit that marriage as quickly as possible the law and we the parliamentarians that execute that law should be trying to make life better for her whoever she is and wherever she lives.It was the Hutt Valley Women's Refuge that got behind Ashley Jones brought this to Parliament brought it to the attention of people like Angie Warren-Clark and it's for that reason that we are discussing this right now. Ashley Jones should be free to be able to leave her marriage leave her relationship if she is being abused by her partner. Other women out there should be able to leave their relationship because it's not a good relationship and it does not add to their wellbeing. And even worse if there are children involved and children are watching this unfold in front of them nothing scars children like being able to see their parents fighting like being able to watch their mother being hit by their father.For that reason it's upon us as parliamentarians to be able to change the law. What's been brought before us tonight is the right thing. I thank Ashley Jones I thank the Hutt Valley Women's Refuge and I thank Angie Warren-Clark for bringing this to the House. I commend it."