Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First in support of the Crimes Amendment Bill. I just intend to take a short call because it's quite a simple bill but it is none the less important. Those main provisions in the bill have been canvassed quite a lot from both sides of the House. The bill repeals three main provisions in the Crimes Act which cover three things: spouse or civil union immunity from prosecution for accessory after the fact blasphemous libel and the year and a day rule. So the main intent of this bill is to ensure that the confidence of the public in the justice system is maintained and one of the ways that we do that through legislation is ensuring that this legislation is applicable to modern day technology and relevant to modern day society and values. So that's the main intent of this bill and the changes and repeals in the bill.I just wanted to mention a couple of main points in support of this bill and on two of the sections. First of all the year and a day rule and the injustice that in today's society it does reflect when someone cannot be prosecuted for someone's death just because a year and a day has passed. We've heard a couple of examples: the CTV Building collapse—Hon Mark Mitchell: Cave Creek.DARROCH BALL: —the Cave Creek disaster. Just because a year and a day has passed the person or people that were responsible for the structure and the issues that created it and caused multiple deaths were not able to be prosecuted for those deaths and that's obviously an injustice and that's one of the reasons why this is being repealed.Another example—I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the House today but definitely through the first reading it was—was the example of someone who died from a coward punch. I think that's a direct example of how the law does not reflect modern-day society's medical ability to be able to maintain someone's life past a year and a day and also the legislation and the developments in the sciences and forensic sciences as well where an individual dies more than a year and a day later and the individual who committed the crime could not be punished for their death when rightly and for justice reasons they absolutely should have been. So New Zealand First supports that.Additionally actually we're not the first country that will be taking away those provisions. We've got like-minded countries that have already done so in the past including England Wales Canada Ireland and actually most of the Australian states as well. It's important also to note on that section that that law won't be retrospective. I know that there've been a couple of opposing views from the National Party but New Zealand First understands why the Minister has brought this forward in the way that he has and we support him on that.This bill also removes the blasphemous libel. I won't labour the point on that—it's quite a simple one. We've also heard that there have been no convictions since 1922 for this so we support that removal—also the concerns that it brings for the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.Lastly there was only one technical amendment that went through the Justice Committee and the committee recommended amending the proposed new schedule 1AA to clarify [that] the nature of acts and omissions to which the transitional provision applies are the same as those currently specified in section 162" and New Zealand First supports that amendment.New Zealand First supports this bill and the changes that it brings to the Crimes Act. We'll be looking forward to the progress of this bill through the House and the debate through the committee of the whole House stages on the Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs). Thank you sir."