Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Deputy Speaker. It's really special and important actually to be standing on behalf of the Green Party to support the Coroners (Access to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill for so many reasons that other members have outlined. I will absolutely start with a mihi of heartfelt thanks to former co-leader Metiria Turei of the Green Party who brought this piece of work to the Māori Affairs Committee borne from personal experience.What I will say is that across the select committee—and this was again typical of the Māori Affairs Committee—this was a very collaborative very united piece of work and approach partly because across the Māori Affairs Committee members we each had either personal experience of or knowledge of a person close to us who had experienced or undergone some challenges and difficulties when wanting to maintain some control and feeling of control of the dead person of the tūpāpaku at such a grief-stricken time. We were all able to relate personally in some way to the very problem at the core of what this piece of legislation is trying to address. That's what drove this inquiry to be such a unified and cohesive inquiry across the select committee because we all saw the heart issue at the core of what we were trying to address. So I have absolute appreciation for and am profoundly grateful to Metiria Turei but I did want to acknowledge Nuk Korako the chair of that Māori Affairs Committee in the way that we took that process through.As you can imagine asking for people to come and talk to a formal room and in the MPs a bunch of mostly strangers about one of the most incredibly personal experiences that a human could ever go through and pouring their experience out to a very formal room of MPs is a really generous thing to ask them to do but they came and they shared their stories with us simply to try and help us do better as lawmakers to try and help us make a decision about what needs to be changed. Some of these stories were harrowing and I want to particularly acknowledge—I did some travel to Parihaka actually to listen to their marae and the whānau at Parihaka about their stories of engaging with agencies around accessing tūpāpaku. One of the particular stories was about the loss of a baby. That is probably the most harrowing event that a human could ever go through. It was that particular story of the difficulties that a grieving mother in a state of emotion that I personally cannot imagine nor do justice to with words and how a baby was ripped from her arms after passing away.So there needed to be an understanding that this is such an important issue and for us we have the opportunity as lawmakers to address this. Actually I want to acknowledge those coroners. Most times there is an incredible effort to try and cater to the needs of families and whānau. I want to acknowledge the efforts that coroners and various other agencies make when it comes to accessing the bodies of the dead person of the loved one. They are being innovative and going out of their way. Recently for example we lost our community leader in Manurewa Damon Heke and I understand that some incredible consideration was made to allow the whānau to stay with him when ordinarily that wouldn't happen.I mean things like family being able to stay at the agency things like family being able to travel with and stay with that tūpāpaku for as much as is practicably possible. If Madam Deputy Speaker would allow me somewhat there was memory that came back to me tonight with this bill that I wouldn't mind just putting on the floor of the House to indicate again the importance of feeling like you are in control of the process when your loved one has passed on and that you can be near. When my cousin passed away many years ago—he drowned in Lake Pupuke and we didn't find him for a night. He was diving and he was on the bottom of the lake and we stayed on the lake—slept under the stars—until he could be found because such was the importance to remain as close as we possibly could to the tūpāpaku as much as was practicably possible. That's a night that I will never ever forget and the privilege of sleeping on the side of the lake taking care of staying close. So to get back to the bill this is where this amendment bill has come from.So what it actually is doing—because I too did want to pick up on the fact that in the actual legislation it is very clear. It's amending section 26 which provides a list of matters that a coroner must take into account when determining whether to authorise a person … to view touch or remain with or near [a] body" and whether to impose any conditions and then that list of matters to be taken into account. What this bill is doing is inserting a section that says what must be taken into account: "the ethnic origins social attitudes or customs or spiritual beliefs of the person who is or of a person who is suspected to be the dead person or of an immediate family member of that person that customarily require viewing touching or remaining with or near the body". So it's very clear that it applies to all ethnicities and not just ethnicities; it actually requires coroners to take into account social attitudes or customs and that will apply to any person no matter what your background or customs or practices are. So this is not just a bill of compassion and humanity but it's also incredibly inclusive and I'm really proud that this House is putting this through tonight for its first reading.I think I've covered a lot of what I wanted to cover—oh I wanted to note that under this legislation my understanding is that the Minister of Justice will also consider whether a code of best practice balances cultural considerations with the public interest in finding the cause of death. And I just do have to mention—because it is relevant to this legislation and why this legislation is good is because there is discrepancy in the ethnicity of which deaths are referred to coroners. Nuk Korako will remember that that did come up before us particularly in the death of babies. So if that is the case then we need to make sure—and you know looking at the systemic biases in the agency practice is a whole other thing. But if the case is that certain ethnicities—in this case it is Māori—are going to be referred more than other ethnicities to coroners then we need to make sure that the tikanga and cultural considerations are a requirement rather than just a discretionary choice of coroners and the other stuff will have to be addressed as well.I want to finish by saying this is just one of the recommendations that came through the inquiry into the management of tūpāpaku. Oh by the way I just want to commend all the members across the House. Tūpāpaku is probably one of the most difficult Te Reo words that you could ever have—Hon Christopher Finlayson: Not really.MARAMA DAVIDSON: —I think it is Chris—but I think that everyone has been making a good effort—and it is hard. Tū-pā-paku—tūpāpaku. The inquiry—this is one of the recommendations but in my view possibly one of the more important ones. So it is a good opportunity that we are putting this through the House tonight. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."