Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Chair. Can I just begin by acknowledging the previous speaker Dr Raymond Huo the chairman of the Justice Committee and acknowledge the good job that he does in chairing the committee and the work that the committee has got through in the last 12 months.He spoke about the justice sector summit. To me it's disappointing when you have a Government now that was in Opposition for nine years and had some very definitive ideas and plans and were very vocal about that in Opposition and came into Government as the incoming Government and were very clear that they were going to reform our criminal justice system and it was going to be a reformist Government and we were going to see them launch their policies in relation to reform—it's disappointing that 18 months in we still have had no signals. I have no idea at all as the Opposition justice spokesman exactly what this Government intends to do around reforms. I've been very clear. I've been very clear with the Minister the Hon Andrew Little: if you come up with some good reforms that we think will benefit this country and benefit our nation and our communities then we'll support those. But if you come to this House with a bunch of reforms that are fundamentally going to dilute or weaken our parole our sentencing and our bail laws thereby transferring risk back into the community we will not stand for that and we will take a very strong position against it. We kicked off with a justice summit a justice summit that forgot to invite victims. I can assure you that the National Party puts the victims at the heart of our criminal justice system. That's where they should be. It was a justice sector summit that forgot to invite victims. The reason why I say that is because afterwards they came under so much pressure that they had to go back and the chairman alluded to it. They've now had to put a summit on for victims. Well it's good and it's pleasing to hear. It's a shame it's taken 18 months for this Government to actually organise something to hear the voices of the victims that through no choice of their own come into our criminal justice system. I don't want to go too much into the cost of that. It was outrageous. You know we held the Government to account. A registration desk that cost $30000 to set up venison burgers and crème brȗlée! It was an outrageous use of taxpayers' money.Then we saw the next step which was an attempted repeal—this was the first thing they did in their justice sector reforms as a Government—of the three strikes legislation. Well the partner threw the justice Minister under the bus. As he went to Cabinet that morning he had to come out and make a public announcement and say We're no longer going to pursue the repeal of the three strikes legislation." That was a disgrace in my view and I'm still highly offended by it—the fact that the only example they could use to try and make a case for repealing the three strikes legislation was to trivialise an indecent assault against a female corrections officer. That's the best that they could do and they couldn't apologise for it and to this day their partner parties have not come forward and apologised either. Then they bring a bill called the Ombudsmen (Protection of Name) Amendment Bill. This just goes to show how little this Government has done in 18 months. This is a bill that they want to protect the name of the Ombudsmen something that will affect one group—one group. And by the way their own ministry advised them not to proceed with this and not to bring it to the House. There's got to be more priorities. That's all that they could bring to this House for the House to debate. That shows how little they've got going on in the justice sector. But they did bring a very good bill to the House. They brought the Trusts Bill to the House—they brought the Trusts Bill to the House. That's a bill that actually makes a fundamental change and difference in a lot of Kiwis' lives. But the thing is: that wasn't their bill; that was the Hon Amy Adams'. That was her bill. That was our bill that they brought to the House that will actually make a difference. Their bill is the Ombudsmen (Protection of Name) Amendment Bill. They've got no plan. There's been no legislation brought to this House. And I'll tell you what. Let me make a prediction. Let me make a prediction right here tonight in the House. This is not a reformist Government. We're not going to see the biggest reforms we've ever seen of the criminal justice system. It's a Government that's paralysed with indecision not knowing what to do and not knowing what to bring to the House. I hope I'm proved wrong but let's see. You're 18 months into it. This is the year of delivery. We're still waiting to see what you're going to deliver in the criminal justice sector. Thank you very much Madam Chair."