Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party and as the member of Parliament for Southland to speak on the Coroners Amendment Bill at its first reading. The National Party supports this bill. It is a useful bill as unfortunately the coronial system is under significant pressure at the moment. The coroners have struggled to keep pace with the number of cases being accepted into the coronial jurisdiction which has resulted in an increasing active caseload and an increase in the average time taken to undertake coronial investigations. One of the important things that the coroner's court provides to people is certainty. That certainty is required so that a firm conclusion can be drawn and people can come to an understanding of what led to that unfortunate loss of an individual. People can process that and effectively it gives people an opportunity to move on once that process has been completed. So it is actually quite a significant issue that the coroner's court has been under significant pressure with increasing caseload and has taken longer to conclude these coronial investigations. I can say that I personally haven't appeared in the coroner's court myself. I have certainly appeared in many other courts as counsel and I have seen the pressure on not only individuals but on families when cases are delayed. In fact I received an email only today from someone who is an alleged victim who has had a case delayed and it's putting significant pressure on that person as they wait years for their case to come to a conclusion. There's uncertainty on both sides of that equation for those who are waiting for a case to be completed in the court so that certainty as to the outcome can be ascertained by the courts. So this is a positive step to ameliorate the pressure that the coronial court is under. The ultimate objective of the bill is to reduce the stress caused to grieving families and whānau by reducing the length of time that they have to ultimately spend waiting to receive coronial findings. The key objectives will be achieved by ensuring that there is a proper process and—we think this is a good one—it establishes the new position of a coronial associate. Coronial associates will take on the more straightforward functions powers and duties currently exercised by coroners while still enabling coroners to exercise them. For example coronial associates will be able to undertake the more straightforward work currently undertaken solely by duty coroners. Coronial associates will also be able to handle the more simple and straightforward coronial investigations—for instance deaths that appear to be due to natural causes without any suspicious circumstances for which an inquiry will not be needed—and simpler inquiries. So this will enable the coroner time especially time that they currently devote to duty coroner work which they can utilise for more complex cases where their skills are probably better deployed—particularly those cases where an inquiry needs to be opened and cases where there is public interest for a coroner to make recommendations to avoid similar deaths in the future. Coronial associates will be judicial officers—that is they'll be part of the judicial branch of Government. So there will be a constitutional separation between the function of their duties and Parliament. They will require a minimum of five years post-admission experience as a barrister or solicitor and that compares to seven years for a judge so it's quite a reasonable period of time they will have to have spent practising as a barrister or solicitor to qualify for this role. As judicial officers their salary and allowances will be determined by the Remuneration Authority which helps ensure their independence and it's important from a constitutional sense.The bill will amend section 64 of the Coroners Act to enable a coroner to record a cause of death on the relevant form as unascertained natural causes" if the coroner considers that the death is from natural causes and no further investigation is required under the Coroners Act. So this will enable families and whānau to receive a coroner's findings sooner particularly when this is undertaken at the duty coroner stage.The bill also amends section 77 of the Coroners Act to provide coroners with the sole discretion to decide whether a coronial inquiry should also include an inquest. This will prevent inquiries from taking place where having regarded the statutory criteria in the Coroners Act the coroner considers the hearing in chambers is appropriate and an inquest is not needed.It will also enable written findings to be issued with the cause of death only where appropriate. This will allow certain cases to be concluded more quickly ensuring families and whānau receive a coroner's finding sooner. So I recommend this bill to the House."