Upston Louise; Rurawhe AdrianThird ReadingHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): I move That the Rights for Victims of Insane Offenders Bill be now read a third time. In October 2010 Graeme Moyle contacted me as his local member of Parliament concerned about unsupervised visits by a special patient who was in the care of the Ministry of Health. This man Matthew Ahlquist was a special patient because he killed his flatmate Colin Moyle Graeme's brother. Graeme has spent years working to change the law based on his experience of the system which didn't treat him and his family the way he expected victims should be treated. Victims of crime loved ones who have been affected by the taking of a life are innocent they are blameless and they experience traumatic events through no fault of their own. It shouldn't matter if the person who committed the act was insane at the time or not. We have balanced very carefully the needs of the people who carried out these acts who were insane who also need the protection and support and care of the system.On 4 April 2019 I put this member's bill into the biscuit tin. It was pulled from the ballot on the very same day. I'm not sure that that's ever happened before but I'm very pleased that it did. It was over a year later on 1 July 2020 that we had its first reading. I outlined the horrendous circumstances of Colin's death and I don't intend to repeat that today. There was no doubt that Matthew Ahlquist took the life of a Good Samaritan his flatmate Colin.There are special days in Parliament and this is one. Too often you see the disagreements the debates and sometimes behaviour that is not becoming and tonight you see the unanimous agreement where the co-operation of members across the House and every party in Parliament agrees not only on a problem but more importantly the solution to that problem. Normally members' bills are pretty straight forward—you know we're told as a new beginner as a new MP if you want a member's bill pick something small and tight. This hasn't been one of those.The Rights for Victims of Insane Offenders Bill does three things: it changes the verdict so that victims don't hear the words not guilty" it gives victims a voice and it provides victims with information. This is an omnibus bill which amends the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003 the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003 and the Victims' Rights Act 2002. It is far more complex than what would normally be tackled in a member's bill and so I have some people to thank.Firstly to Graeme for your sheer perseverance. I think you've figured out now that I can also be pretty bloody-minded and it's a good thing that the pair of us are determined. I want to thank your wider family in particular Liz who have supported you in every step of this journey.To the many victims that courageously shared their stories their experiences and their pain I do have to say as other select committee members no doubt will some of the stories were absolutely harrowing and some of those stories were heard in public for the very first time. So I want to commend you for your courage. This bill supports those who through no action of their own and no fault of their own have had their lives permanently altered—trauma through no action of their own—and this Parliament supports them.I want to thank Wendy Strawbridge who presented her petition to Parliament which sought to amend the law to extend to the victims of crime committed by people found to be insane the very same protections and rights as other victims of crime. She presented her petition in March 2019. Wendy was the victim of an attempted murder in Nelson while she was working as a registered nurse in the community. She discovered that the person found not guilty of her attempted murder by reason of insanity was back in the community in her community on unescorted leave. She had no input no consent no notification which of course was devastating for her. I want to give my thanks to Nick Smith who was her MP for all of this journey and who has worked tirelessly on this cause with me. This bill addresses the very issues that she raised; so it made sense for the select committee to deal with both items at once.To Victim Support who have recently celebrated 35 years. They were also at the table giving evidence and behind the scenes providing support to the victims that had presented along with other victims' advocates like the tireless Ruth Money.I want to thank the members of this House for keeping the focus on victims. It was a complex balance. It was a very difficult and awkward balance at times but we landed in a place where we balanced the needs of the victims and also those of the special patients. I want to thank each of the party leads on this bill for taking the time the meetings the discussions the late night texts and really deeply considering the issues.The Justice Committee who on multiple occasions could have easily said "It's too hard; go home."—and I'm sure they were tempted to! Thank you for your perseverance. I think this piece of legislation—the omnibus bill of four complex pieces of legislation that are being amended—really is due to the significant work that the select committee members put in. By keeping an open mind by keeping a focus on the policy intent of the bill we traversed this very tricky issue at times pushing the boundaries. And special thanks goes to the chair Ginny Andersen for diligently and carefully navigating our way through this process to ensure that we kept support for the bill unanimous. And I want to repeat that because that is really unusual. It is very unusual in the select committee on any bill and it's incredibly rare on a member's bill. So I do want to pay special tribute to Ginny for the professional way and the very diligent way you drove to ensure we got an outcome that we all agreed with. And I know at times I can push the boundaries myself perhaps showing that bloody-mindedness that determination or at times I've been referred to as being unreasonable.To Andrew Little who now is the Minister of Health but formerly the Minister of Justice who agreed quite some time ago that the verdict must be changed and gave officials full remit to work on this bill. Again that's very unusual and without the Minister's remit we wouldn't have been able to do the sorts of work that we needed to to end up with this bill.To the justice and health officials and in particular Dr Crawshaw who worked so well together despite coming up against issues that needed careful consideration and were often in conflict with each other. As I said before in the committee stage usually our systems of Government are very separate and it's quite hard to mesh them together.To the select committee staff who kept us incredibly supported through our work who worked so professionally and the officials as I said who navigated some pretty tricky waters.Last but not least the Parliamentary Counsel Office who helped interpret my very first policy intent into a member's bill after many many many months of work and then crafted the select committee decisions into a workable solution that we will pass the bill today.Today I want to give confidence to every New Zealander that this is your House and as MPs we work for you. We work to make New Zealand a better place. You can meet with your MP like Graeme did and you can change the law. To paraphrase another New Zealander while it might not happen overnight it can happen. Tonight is proof of that and I think it's a wonderful way to end this parliamentary year for the members' day where victims will have more rights with the unanimous passing of this bill. Thank you.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."