Nash StuartSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): We bring in these amendment bills because there is something wrong something missing we have thought of something or times haves changed from when the original legislation was put in place. This is an Act that Labour introduced 10 years ago and times do change. But the test of a good bill in my view is whether it has improved the situation does it make it better for New Zealanders and does it do a favour to society? When I look at this I do not think it would. So when we call this an amendment bill it is actually a bill that is going backwards.I firmly believe that the coroner has a very important role to play in our society. Coroners are independent—we know that; they are experts in their field. What this bill actually does is to narrow the scope of what they are allowed to do and the recommendations that they are allowed to bring in. So why would we bring in or legislate for recommendations that do not actually strengthen the role of a very important part of our society; which in a way almost weaken it or—as Ms Ardern highlighted—actually take power away from an independent body? I do not think there is anything in this bill that has actually amended the legislation in a way that has added—well there are parts that have—to the Coroners Act 2006 but it has actually taken away from the ability of coroners to act in a manner that I think society has come to expect from them.We do know that coroners can be overloaded—there is no doubt about that—but now it is no longer mandatory for coroners to hold an inquest into deaths that occur in official custody. I would have thought that that is a vital part of the independence of our system. We have a professional body of men and women who have the abilities and the skills to undertake the sorts of inquests that I think New Zealanders have come to demand and now after 10 years expect. This bill has not taken us forward; it has taken us backwards.As of 1 July—which is only 2 weeks away—this is going to come into play and I think that New Zealand is going to be the worse off for it to be honest. There is not too much more I can say with regard to this except to sum up what the other speakers have concluded: the fact that this should actually be non-contentious legislation. The role of the coroners in society should be something that all parties in this House agree upon in a bipartisan way because it is such an important part of our system. The fact that we do not agree on it—that there are divisions across the House in something that should not be contentious—shows a flaw in this piece of legislation I think.I think what should have happened with this is it should have stayed with the Justice and Electoral Committee until it could actually gain consensus or it should have been withdrawn and gone back to a process that allowed consensus to be developed. When we start undermining pillars of our community like the coroner or undermining the powers of the coroner then you have got to ask where it stops. I just think that the independence of someone like the coroner is important because what they have done in the past—and this amendment bill strips away a lot of it—is to provide recommendations in a way that others cannot. What they have also done I believe is to add a level of legitimacy to a process that has often needed that in place.As we know they cover all manner of issues and deaths and all manner of incidents; it is really a one-stop shop I suppose. We cannot have the police do this—we cannot have the police investigating deaths in custody. We know that we can have inquiries of different natures but I just think that it was a very good backstop. It was a very important part of society and the checks and balances in place allowed things to function in a way that New Zealanders had come to expect. This is a pretty poor substitute for that. I have taken Jacinda Ardern's lead on this; she has done a very good job in presenting the case. Unfortunately we are not going to win in this and I just do not think it is a great result. I suspect we are going to see this legislation back in the House in 2018 with the powers of the coroner returned to how they were before this bill.