SpeechANAHILA KANONGATA'A (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. It's a huge honour for me to speak on the Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill. I too agree that all people should have the right to feel safe in a relationship and be safe when they do decide to leave.I want to take this opportunity to thank the leadership of Angie Warren-Clark because she has through her leadership brought this bill into this House. Using her experience as someone who has worked in the women's refuge area she actually brought insights into this work and I want to acknowledge Angie Warren-Clark who also chairs the Social Services and Community Committee. I want to acknowledge Ashley Jones for the courage that she has taken to first of all make the steps to seek help and depart although she wasn't safe from her partner. Usually in this House we talk about other people's experiences but I've been sitting here contemplating whether I should talk about mine or not. So at the age of 18 I got married and then at the age of 20 I realised that I actually wanted to end the marriage. So when I did that my former husband at the time wasn't violent but he became violent when I made the decision to leave. So then I went through the whole process of the Family Court where I got a protection order; we had two children at the time. I think what this bill does is bring in dissolution for family violence bring in the conditions the grounds that a person requires for a protection order and the other party is the respondent. I think there are different levels of violence. Whether that violence is physical or whether that violence as in my case is psychological with verbal threats. This bill provides an opportunity for people as in my case who have decided to leave the marriage and would like to end it within the two years because the former partner or husband has become a person they didn't know has become violent. So that's what I think this bill acknowledges: there are different stages of family violence. Family violence is not only physical but also is psychological and sometimes that psychological harm lasts longer than the physical. I want to acknowledge that there are three grounds like I've said before—a protection order the other parties and the respondent and sufficient evidence providing a copy to the registrar. Often in these cases and like in my case as I've shared—I had two children both under two at the time that I had to think of. So for all the people who are currently in a situation where they're making a decision whether it's safe to leave or not to leave this bill is sending a signal that you can do that that one can do that. If you want to end the marriage—get a dissolution of the marriage sooner than two years—then you can do that.In my case I got the protection order because the former husband became threatening. I didn't seek to have an early dissolution because he left for Australia and then I didn't go through that process—well he actually sent the dissolution of marriage across the Tasman to me. So I want to just acknowledge that there are different stages where a relationship does become unsafe. But going back to the essence of this bill it is talking about making sure that all people should be safe in the relationship and that when they do decide to end the relationship because they no longer want to be in that relationship they should be able to leave the relationship safely.Usually the people that are caught in the middle are the children and I want to acknowledge all the children and my kids for being in those situations. The people who have courage to leave a threatening relationship or a violent relationship—it does take a lot. It is not something that you do at a whim and it's not something that you want to go through the Family Court to share all your secrets that happen behind closed doors. It is a serious decision that you want to make.Again I believe that all people should have the right to feel safe in relationships and I commend this bill to the House. Mālō.