Yang Jian; Williams PotoDr JIAN YANG (National): Statutes amendment bills are annual bills basically. These bills will give us an opportunity to make minor technical and non-controversial amendments to existing statutes. This bill originally made changes to 29 Acts but then the Governance and Administration Committee recommended removing two changes to two Acts—so basically to 27 Acts. There are various reasons why we need to make these changes. Some of the amendments intend to increase efficiency such as Parts 3 4 5 and 13. All these amendments are related to legislation supporting children and families.The amendments will basically facilitate the development of a central unit for the processing and payment of service provider invoices. Basically it will make it easier for the lawyers or representatives of a particular client to submit their invoices because at the moment it seems to be very difficult; they have to go to specific courts. Now with this bill they could go to any court to submit their invoices because there will be a central unit to handle these invoices. Improving the efficiencies and effectiveness of governance is particularly important to any Government so it is important for us to commit to delivering better public services and so these changes will serve that purpose.Also some amendments are for clarification such as Parts 7 8 12 and 24 and some amendments simply correct errors or improve expressions such as Parts 10 and 14. I think the Minister mentioned some of these previous errors or oversights. So these are simply minor changes and there are other amendments that will enable us to better use modern technology. For instance Part 1 of the bill will allow live-capture animal traps to be remotely monitored and the use of modern technology will certainly be cost-effective.Of course it's not just for cost or convenience right? We do need to make sure that modern technology is used properly so that while we make it cost-effective at the same time we protect animal welfare properly. And that is why this bill will also require people to make sure these traps or modern technology are used in the proper way. For that reason this bill will basically amend section 36 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 which provides that any live animal found in the trap must be removed or cared for or must be killed without delay. A person who commits an offence against section 36(2) is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5000 for an individual or $25000 for a body corporate. So basically you do have obligations to make sure that while you're using modern technology you're able to protect animal welfare. So that is a bill which really is trying to improve efficiency and make people's lives easier but at the same time we do have our responsibilities to protect animal welfare.Some amendments are small but could mean a lot to some people. For instance amendments in Part 19 will enable justices of the peace with fewer than 10 years of service to use the designation JP (retired)". At the moment you can't because this designation can be assigned to and used by only those JPs with service of more than 10 years. This is basically to make it possible for those JPs who have served for fewer than 10 years but have to retire because of illness or because of disability or for some particular reasons. So the secretary would be able to judge whether this person could use "JP (retired)" or not even though this person has not served for more than 10 years.Now JPs are particularly important in our society and they are important particularly to new immigrants because I myself have used JPs on quite a few occasions. Now for new immigrants they come to New Zealand. They need JPs' assistance to certify certain documents in their settlement process so we do need to recognise—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): I'm sorry to interrupt the member. The time has come for me to report progress.House resumed.Progress reported.Report adopted.The House adjourned at 5.56 p.m."