Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): I rise to take a short call in support of the Courts Matters Bill and the Tribunals Powers and Procedures Legislation Bill. To pick up on the point of the previous speaker Andrew Little I speak as the current chairperson of the Justice and Electoral Committee. Of course Parliament will be dissolved on Thursday so I will hold that mantle for a little bit of time to come yet. But yes we will be dissolving the Parliament and who knows what will happen after that. But one thing that the Justice and Electoral Committee is united on is of course making sure that everybody has access to justice. As part of that we do need to ensure that our system is modern that it is efficient and that it is effective.The one thing that I need to praise in these amendment bills is the fact that in the civil arena the disputes tribunal monetary threshold will rise from $15000 to $30000 and certainly—from my previous life as a solicitor and working for clients—this will be a welcome change. Obviously as the economy is growing and people enter into commercial transactions when there is a dispute people look for fast and effective ways to settle disputes and of course the disputes tribunal is a judicial body that is often used to deal with this when a negotiation cannot bring about a satisfactory outcome. So I know that this raising of the threshold from $15000 to $30000 will be welcomed in the community. It allows the opportunity for people to take their claims to this tribunal to be heard and by raising that threshold and giving a larger discretion to the judge that means that these claims are settled more quickly and efficiently and that of course is a good thing in our justice system.The other point that I want to talk about that I am impressed with in these bills is of course the streamlined processes for lower-level offences punishable by community work—allowing defendants to enter a written plea rather than making that physical appearance in court. Again this adds to efficiency. The defendant is still getting a fair hearing; they are able to enter their plea in writing and put supporting documentation around that but again it streamlines the processes so that courts are not bogged down by these lower-level offences and can judge on the merits of the case with respect to that. So that is an important streamlining process that will be investigated in the select committee process but I think on the face of it it is a good one.Certainly to pick up on a third—to give the court security staff more powers to deal with unruly people in courts. When you are in a court and there is disruption of course it is very distracting but people do need to feel safe when they are presenting their case and when they are coming to be heard so to give further extension of these powers to court officers to detain or remove people who are abusive or disruptive and creating disorder that is a good thing—to allow these people who have rightly gone to court to have their day to be heard and to feel safe but also to give extra mana to the court process and to the judiciary. When one goes to the judiciary it is an important process. It is about justice it is about democracy and we need to maintain that level of respect in a courtroom. So I think that that is an important amendment to look at to give further powers to make courts more secure.I think that this is a timely introduction of these two bills to again fit with our Better Public Services targets to make the justice system more modern and efficient and effective and I support these bills to the House.