Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I was actually looking forward to coming down and speaking on this bill tonight because it's quite an important bill—Barbara Kuriger: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Was that the New Zealand First call? This is the second New Zealand First speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Actually it wasn't. The honourable Acting Prime Minister was actually making a request on behalf—he was actually seeking a procedural motion.Hon Member: Was he doing it under a point of order?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): He didn't call a point of order but he sought the will of the House to make an extension to the Hon Maggie Barry's call.DARROCH BALL: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Like I was saying I was actually quite looking forward to coming down and speaking in this House not necessarily because they are very very important bills but because I wanted to hear what the Minister had to say in bringing these changes that have been made to these bills in the previous Government and about the very good changes coming through. But the excitement actually dissipated from me when I had to hear from the Hon Maggie Barry and the ridiculousness that was coming out of her mouth and the viciousness—the venom that was coming out of her mouth in regards to the insults coming across to this side of the House.You know I have been known once in a while to be a bringer of fact. It's not a nice job but some people have to do it in this House. Obviously the speeches in the House from the National Party tonight have been absolutely and totally bereft of fact but the reason why it is absolutely necessary for this legislation to be brought to this House—not only that but the changes that have needed to be made by the Justice Committee and by this side of the House. Here are a couple of facts: as of June this year there's been a backlog. There has been a backlog 135 people to the Human Rights Review Tribunal—135.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How many?DARROCH BALL: One hundred and thirty-five but that's just the start of it—that's just the start of it. This incompetent National Party when they were the Government the incompetence was palpable. One of the facts in regard to this topic was the fact that between 2014 and 2017 the backlog jumped 144 percent.Hon Member: How much?DARROCH BALL: One hundred and forty-four percent. So we can hear all of the nice one-liners that they seem to want to repeat because they hand around the speech notes that they've been given because they've run out of speechwriters for them because they're in Opposition right now. They want to start talking about the one-liners: how it was the Hon Amy Adams who brought this to this House and how it was the National Government that brought this important legislation to this House. Well that may be true—that that member who said she did actually did. That may be true but why was it nine years? Why did it take nine years? If this was such an important piece of legislation that those National Party members have been standing up and saying was so essential and that it was the National Party and the previous National Party Minister that had the initiative to bring it to this House; why did it take nine years? Why did it take nine years? Not only that fact but the stats that I've read out were from June this year and 2017. You can't get any more current than that. If it was one of the reasons why the Minister brought it last term it was because of the reactionary nature that that Government was producing for the people of this country.These are a couple of bills that are very important and that is why—and they're very similar bills. For those that have been watching that have heard the term cognate bills" it's because they are similar in nature but very very important. One of the major reasons is because of the technology that obviously this country and society and Western society in general especially in our courts have needed to update but over the past 10 years there has been under-resourcing and neglect from the National Party to be able to achieve that. That's what this piece of legislation is going through right now in the House and it's taken us less than nine months to do so. We are willing as a Government as a coalition with the support of the Greens to make sure that our courts and our justice system—and that includes the police Mr Mitchell—are all fully resourced to ensure that the continuum of the justice system is 100 percent working for the people of this country.There are a couple of things that I just want to point out before I finish on my short call and it's quite important. We've been hearing that these bills do one major thing and that's speed up the process: saving time or reducing the time and making sure it flows for the people of this country. As you all know the foundation of a robust democracy is a functioning fair and accessible justice system and that's what this piece of legislation does. But I think it's very important to point out that even though one of the main intents and objectives of this bill is to speed up the process it needs to be ensured that it's balanced with the process being fair and robust. I think that this bill does that.Lastly I just wanted to go through the report. Unfortunately I'm not sitting on the Justice Committee at this point. I would love to dearly but I'm just going through the report of the Courts Matters Bill and one of the most important things—and there's many points that have been pointed out from all of the speakers in the House today; that it's quite a detailed bill of smaller changes but I think one of the most important ones that I'm interested in is about Youth Court proceedings.At the moment as the legislation stands if a conviction of a young person has come to its conclusion in the District Court that conviction would stand even if there was a filing error and that young person shouldn't have been in a District Court in the first place; that young person should've actually gone through the Youth Court and at this stage the conviction was found. That is clause 40 and the recommendation from the Justice Committee is that it be removed because we feel that that is wrong.I'd just like to finish there and I'd like to thank the Minister and the Labour - New Zealand First coalition Government for bringing this forward in such a timely manner—with the support of the Greens. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.Hon Kris Faafoi: "Deputy Dawg"!ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I call the Hon Mark Mitchell and I will just caution the member Kris Faafoi to remember to use a member's proper name."