Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker kia ora koutou.Hon Stuart Nash: This'll be better—this'll be better.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Sorry? I just want to say the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee's gone along very well and the chair's done exceedingly well—exceeded himself. But I will say on this—and it is non-controversial but you have go—if we're just thinking about Minister Mark—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Let's start as we mean to go on. I know we've had problems in the past but if I could encourage the member to refrain from the use of the word you" because it brings the Speaker into the debate.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: OK thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. In terms of what we're talking about today I was listening though to Minister Mark and in terms of this alignment with what's happening day to day the armed forces had to align probably more than anyone else. What I was wanting to say is that we should mihi to the fifth Labour Government here for the changes that they decided on back between 2002 and 2006.Things were so bad I think in the armed forces—and as I said Minister Mark talked a little bit about it but I remember it so well because I've had so many friends and family go through the armed forces and go through a legal process that was just unbelievable at times. If anything needed changing that system needed changing so badly that I had a friend—and I recall vividly—going through problems I suppose having a breakdown at the time in the mid-1980s. An officer in the army and thrown—no legal help sought no experts sought just a judgment made that that this young man who was a good friend of mine must have been just mad and thrown into a mental hospital with murderers and rapists. It was shocking absolutely shocking and it affected him for the rest of his life and today.That was the system that Minister Mark talks about—a system that had no aroha to their own. A system in which there was just one way—and it was their way—and that treated women very badly in the earlier years. So I mihi to what the earlier Labour Government did between 2005 and 2006. Also in terms of the forces and how they addressed a lot of the problems with the sexual harassment that went on the bullying that went on Operation RESPECT was set up and they gave some respect to some of the problems that a lot of the women had gone through in the forces. And you can only congratulate them on that work. I know some of the people who carried out the work during that time. It was the armed forces finally accepting that there was an unnecessary level of sexual harassment going on through the forces and Operation RESPECT knocked a lot of that out and is working with that today where we see women being promoted in the right areas not being bullied and the forces owning up to a level of harassment that would never be accepted in everyday life.The previous speakers talked about a couple of areas that are very very important in the area of victims' rights. Those same rights need to be given to military victims of serious offences and of course particularly those involved in a sexual nature. These rights need to be afforded to victims because in previous times that was never the case. So I'm proud that the bill was able to address those areas and the other one of course is the onus of proof aside. In terms of the onus of proof it was particularly important that we recognise that someone does not have to prove that he or she is innocent; they have to be given the same opportunity that they are given day to day and the onus of proof surely has to be on the prosecution.So it was really pleasing to see that we were able to align that side of things because a basic tenet of justice is that you're innocent until proven guilty rather than guilty because you've got an allegation raised against you. So that onus of proof for myself was very pleasing to see and as a committee we worked closely together on this. There was never any real debate about things. It was good to see that both parties both sides were on the right track in these areas in terms of victims' rights and onus of proof and I think we're on track now to setting this up so that it can finally give some justice to people who serve our country but for some unknown reason in past years have been unable to receive the same rights as everyday citizens. So I'm very pleased to support this and I look forward to this going through the House. Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker."