Adams AmyHon AMY ADAMS (Minister of Justice): At the risk of being not nearly as fluent as Kelvin Davis: e Te Tiamana tēnā koe huri noa i Te Whare Pāremata ngā mihi ki ngā mema katoa i tēnei Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. [Thank you Mr Chairman and acknowledgments to all members throughout Parliament in this the Māori Language Week].Whew! It is my great pleasure to take a call in the Estimates debate on the Justice Sector—Vote Courts and Vote Justice which of course are my responsibility and on behalf of my fellow Ministers Vote Attorney-General Vote Police Vote Corrections and Vote Parliamentary Counsel. In this year's Budget of course we saw an investment of more than $880 million in the justice sector—a significant investment by any calculation. In my own area of courts and justice we saw an investment of more than $208 million which I am certainly very proud of. As part of that I want to particularly commend the significant investment into access to justice which is an issue that I think New Zealand does have a valid and right interest in. We have seen the increase in the civil legal aid threshold. We have seen a full commitment to funding for criminal and civil legal aid. We have seen increases to the Public Defence Service. We have seen a guarantee of continuity of funding for the community law centres—$96 million supporting access to justice is as I say certainly a sizable commitment. In her opening contribution the chair of the Justice and Electoral Committee who does a fantastic job—Jacqui Dean the member for Waitaki—made reference to the fact that I have put at the heart of my time in the role of the Minister of Justice in particular the victims of family and sexual violence but actually more broadly how our system protects and promotes the interests of the vulnerable and the victims in our society. That work has really been the focus over the year in discussion; it will be the focus going forward. Ms Dean talked about our National Home Safety Service which we put out the first-year statistics on today and like Ms Dean I have been simply amazed at the very significant differences we have seen in the safety of these people—predominately women but not only women—and their children. I think actually it is more important than that. It actually represents a fundamental shift in thinking in the way the system responds to family violence which is saying it is no longer the done thing to say: Get out get yourself a protection order get yourself off to a shelter." Actually it is not the job of the victim to have to disrupt their lives separate from their children and remove themselves from all of their supports their jobs the kids' schools and the like; actually it is the system's job to better deal with the perpetrator. So this is about recognising that we want the victims to be able to stay in their homes and in their communities and their kids to stay in their schools. We want to keep them safe and let us deal with the perpetrator because the only way we address this behaviour is by stopping the perpetrator's offending. I know that sounds like a trite statement but actually it is a significant shift and an important one. It is of course just one of the changes we have made over the past year in this area as we work on the more substantial reform that Ms Dean referenced through our ministerial work group programme. We have also seen a significant shift in information sharing whether it is between the criminal and family jurisdictions of the court—we have seen a far better family violence summary information pack put in front of judges when they are making bail decisions so that we know that judges have the full information about the criminal and family violence history of the offenders when they are making those critical bail decisions. Through the good work of Minister Collins and police we have seen the new Family Violence Disclosure Scheme which has enabled people to go to the police and seek information on a partner or prospective partner to ensure that they can keep themselves safe. And just this week in Christchurch we have started a pilot that I have incredibly high hopes for: the Integrated Safety Response pilot which is not only building on the work that has been done in New Zealand through systems like the Family Violence Interagency Response System and multi-agency response but also taking the best of the learnings from the UK through its Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference programmes. It is ensuring that we have all of the agencies from Whānau Ora to Child Youth and Family to social housing to police obviously to counselling services and to NGOs coming up with a plan doing a risk assessment wrapping an intensive case management process around high-risk victims and importantly following up. We have been very good at doing triage and not so good at following up. There will of course be more to come.We have seen the appointment of New Zealand's first ever Chief Victims Advisor to Government in Dr Kim McGregor. I can tell this House that Dr McGregor is doing a wonderful job already and has already given me several very good pieces of advice and information helping me to ensure that the voice of the victim is right at the heart of our policy making. I did particularly want to mention the $16.2 million in extra funding we have put into restorative justice in this Budget. Can I just tell this House that since 2014 the referrals to restorative justice have tripled and actually that is not just a sort of a nice warm cuddly thing to do. We know that for people who go through restorative justice we see 26 percent fewer offences committed and a 15 percent lower offending rate. So that is a real difference and it is part of the reason why the crime rate has dropped 16 percent since 2011—16 percent since 2011 confirmed by the latest crime stats that have come out—and that is something that we should be very very proud of. Not to say the job is done—any crime is too much—but we are seeing a steady pattern of reduction in offending the exception being family violence. That is why frankly as a country we have to do more about that. I want to just mention briefly too the commitment in the Budget also around the $16 million mark for setting up the new approved agency under the Harmful Digital Communications Act. This is something again that I am extremely proud of. We are being looked at. In fact I have been asked by justice and police Ministers from across Australian jurisdictions to do a presentation to them on our law and how it is working because it is something that they see as a very successful way of tackling this insidious new form of harassment and cyber-bullying that we see. I was delighted to announce the appointment of NetSafe to the role. I have no doubt that it will be a hugely successful partner for us in that space. Can I just very quickly in the remainder of my contribution talk about our court system. Our court system I think does not get the credit that it deserves—277000 cases a year go through our courts and tribunals and that frankly is just the tip of the iceberg. Even though we are dealing with some very complex cases some very difficult proceedings we have seen a 43 percent reduction in the ages of High Court civil appeal cases a 35 percent reduction in the age of Māori Land Court cases and a 20 percent reduction in the age of District Court criminal jury trials. This is important—actually we want justice to be timely. No one wants to be in the system longer than they need to and again we have got more that we want to do but we are certainly making some very good progress. I want to just touch on three specific projects that I am very proud of. The first is the commitment that I have made and the funding we have secured in the Budget to restore the Dunedin courthouse. I have to say to this Committee that when I went to Dunedin and saw the court it was immediately apparent to me that this was a building that we simply had to ensure was restored to its full glory and was properly strengthened and more importantly that could return to being a court. It is not a cheap project I can assure this Committee but we have fully funded it in this Budget and we are looking forward to that work getting under way. Similarly in Jacqui Dean's own electorate of Waitaki we have managed to negotiate with Jacqui Dean's assistance the—I would say—saving of the Ōāmaru District Court. Again it is a fantastic Victorian-style building in that white stone that Ōāmaru is famous for. Again we had had to vacate after the earthquakes and there was a real risk I think of court services being lost from that building and potentially even from Ōāmaru. With the good work of my predecessor Chester Borrows and the work that has been done since we have negotiated an agreement with the council whereby it will take on ownership of the building and do the restoration and we can lease back to use those court services which I think has been a win-win for the community and for courts.The final project I would like to touch on is the Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct which really has been a flagship of the regeneration of the Government in central Christchurch. It is looking fantastic. The exterior is almost complete. It is a 42000-square-metre complex a $350 million project. Not only does it bring nine different agencies together to work in a coordinated sensible integrated way where we reduce the number of holding cells we reduce the movement of prisoners and we make it easier for people to come in—better emergency management—but really critically as a member involved in the Christchurch and Canterbury earthquake recovery when that precinct is open around June of next year it is going to bring 2000 people a day into the central business district of Christchurch. If there is one thing you hear from the small businesses in Canterbury it is that until you get those pump-priming major industries coming in that bring the people in the little cafes do not start and the little shoe shops—close to my heart—do not start and all of those little things that give a city a buzz and a life do not start. The Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct is one part of that but it is a very tangible signal to the people of Christchurch that actually the Government is in town we are coming back the lawyers come back around us and the banks come back around them and that will see in a very tangible way the redevelopment the rejuvenation and the recovery of the city and the district that I love so much. I cannot wait to be there for the opening and I am looking forward to continuing to work in this space to promote the vulnerable and the victims in our society and as I say do whatever we can for family and sexual violence victims in New Zealand. Kia ora."