McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Minister I will go back to my first question and wonder whether you could answer that about the strangulation fund—$370000 only having been spent out of $3.2 million as at 5 April. And further to that the better outcomes for victims package—that had an allocation of $3.5 million in the last Budget allocation and only $322643 has been spent as at 31 March 2023. So how come it's taken nearly a year before any of the large policies were announced to go with that Budget? Thank you Minister.Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): Thank you again to the member. Look I'll answer that first question. I slightly missed the second part so if you could restate that—actually do you want to do that now and I'll respond to the first part?NICOLE McKEE (ACT): The second part of the question related to the better outcomes for victims package. Why was only $322643 spent as at the end of March this year out of a $3.5 million package and why did it take nearly a year after that announcement of $3.5 million for any large policies to be announced in that area?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): Thank you Mr Chair. Turning to the question now. I apologise to the member that I didn't answer it when I stood prior on strangulation and non-fatal strangulation. I guess that there's a couple of ways that I will answer that. Justice had a proportion and allocation of the Budget and there is effectively a very streamlined way of the Ministry of Justice giving effect to the way in which expenditure for that particular appropriation was made and that was through the legal aid system. That's a very simple response. The other part of that funding was to the Ministry of Health to provide support and additional training and to provide ways that could operationalise—or the Ministry of Health could operationalise—being able to provide expert medical and forensic witnesses. So two parts.To the second part with respect to the Ministry of Health you'll have to make your inquiries there but with respect to the Vote that we've received this funding that came to Justice was made available to support experts attending court as witnesses to ensure judicial processes are leading to high-quality decisions and that was indeed with the amendments and the package focused around family violence. This is why that additional funding was injected into this area. Of course the prosecution of those crimes or the provision of health specialists—in simple sum those need to be directed to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Police.With respect to the funding for the better outcomes for victims it was always envisaged that it would be an outcome—so a re-orientating—of the way that the justice system and therefore the various agencies that engage with victims—a completely different operating model as the member will be aware in our justice system. It's an adversarial system where the State prosecutes a defendant. The victims in that system are effectively not represented for example by the Crown—they don't have their own legal counsel and their experiences are ad hoc. And I will acknowledge the previous Government for their leadership in appointing the Chief Victims Adviser—that was a good first step. Off the back of those reports and the subsequent inquiry by the Chief Victims Adviser which essentially tasked her and others to come up with the way in which we need to step through: one we need to trial things within the justice system. It's made up of many parts—Corrections Oranga Tamariki Police and many other parts there. And so what we needed to do was one look at what legislative changes were imminent and immediate that would lead to direct outcomes; now secondly look at particular pilots that people like the Chief Victims Adviser and others as well who are victims' advocates had been saying would make a substantive difference to the way that victims could live their lives. With the appropriations that were made in 2022 of course it was a different approach for the justice sector. It was a multi-year appropriation so the intent wasn't to spend all of the money right away; it was to sit to do some work to look and to make sure that over the course of those four years to which that appropriation applied the outcomes would start small in terms of investment because it was about pulling things together so that we could operationalise. As the member's aware we've made a significant announcement and subsequent investment into not just legislative and trials but also a substantive uplift in the support that victims can receive both through Victim Support and through the Victims Assistance Scheme that are available to victims directly as well. Those trials come into force on 1 June. They will provide a 12-month leeway. And of course whilst those trials are in place we will also be looking at what the other raft of measures will be. So consider this an ongoing commitment by the Government to invest in doing things quite differently for victims because I think collectively this House would agree that that's a really important step that needs to be made.