SpeechMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker; a pleasure to take a call on the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill in its second reading.As we've heard from the previous speakers the bill is about improving outcomes for people who participate in Family Court proceedings and especially the children by reducing the delays involved. We've heard many examples of how the delays have wide-ranging effects especially on children. Someone mentioned that justice delayed is justice denied and I think that is a very clear maxim to go on. So I would also like to put my acknowledgment to everybody who submitted on this bill. We heard there were 31 submitters and the Justice Committee heard 14 of those in oral submissions. They included the judiciary professional organisations iwi and their representatives and interested groups and individuals. So what the bill does is respond to specific issues that were identified by the independent panel which was established in 2018 by our Government. Among the findings was that there was a high administrative burden that was placed on judges which then in turn contributed to some of those delays. The panel subsequently recommended that a new position be established in the Family Court. So we've heard people talk about this new position being the Family Court Associate which would be a judicial officer enabled to take some of that work away from the judges—for example making decisions in the early stages of proceedings. That means that judges can make more effective use of their time and in return it will reduce delays and assist in improving the process and experience of people who participate in Family Court proceedings.Now it was really a pleasure to hear our expert in this field on our select committee Emily Henderson speak on particular experiences that she's had when she was working in this field. She's always very generous in sharing those experiences and I find that very helpful. So again she spoke about the reforms in 2014 that resulted in significant delays. In fact without notice applications saw a rise from 30 percent in 2014 to what became—what she referred to as—a new norm: 70 percent. That is why as I mentioned before an independent panel was put in place to examine those changes and make recommendations on how we could further improve the system. The select committee has recommended some refinements to the bill to assist in reducing delays in the Family Court. I won't go over those again. I think the previous speaker in particular Nicole McKee gave a really good detailed overview of what those particular recommendations are.She also spoke about the review that is going to be put in place—in five years after the commencement of the bill—to make sure that the Family Court Associate role would actually have assisted in reducing delays in the Family Court. So as the Minister said previously introducing this new Family Court Associate role is just one part of the long-term programme of change in the family justice system and one more step towards a system that is ensuring timely access to justice as well as being responsive to the needs of whānau. I would recommend and commend it to the House. Thank you Madam Speaker. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Tama Potaka—a five-minute call.