Tanczos Nandor: Evidence Bill — Third Reading 
Tanczos Nandor: Evidence Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6807] 
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 I rise to give a fairly short speech in the third reading of the Evidence Bill and to indicate that the Green Party continues to support this bill as we have all the way through. I will give a short speech because I think that some of the specific details of the bill have been very well canvassed by previous speakers—by the excellent speeches of Russell Fairbrother Chris Finlayson and of course the Minister—so I will not attempt to re-cover ground that has already been covered. 
This bill is an example of Parliament at its best in some ways. Of course Parliament has an important role in terms of testing ideas having rigorous debate challenging the Government and holding the executive to account. But it also has an important role simply in passing good legislation. 
That is what we have in this case. We have seen various parties coming together to work cooperatively and in a thorough manner through the details of this important legislation in order to ensure that we are passing good legislation and that is the role of good parliamentarians. 
I think it is a tribute to the Law Commission and the lengthy work it did on this matter that the legislation has passed through the select committee process with some changes but relatively unscathed. A concern in this House in past times has been the way in which a lot of important work that the Law Commission has done has ended up being shelved. It has produced important law reform work that has not proceeded because there has been no political heat around it so perhaps this legislation is a tribute to the Law Commission—although one could also argue that there is a fairly sparse Government agenda at present which is allowing some of these matters to proceed. Nevertheless that does not diminish the fact that this is an important reform in order to bring the law of evidence up to date to clarify the law to codify parts of the common law and also importantly to allow greater access to the law of evidence. 
 Speakers have mentioned access to the law but that includes access for law students lawyers paralegals—and lay persons as well. It is important we remember that the law is not for parliamentarians lawyers and judges; it is actually for ordinary people. So the importance of having law that is accessible to ordinary people cannot be overstated and that is why we made the provision of better access one of the purposes of the bill. That is not to say that it is simple access that access is easy or that the law is an easy subject to understand; it is complex stuff. Nevertheless to have a place where ordinary people can go and at least get a handle on some of the main points of the law of evidence I think is enormously important and I am very pleased that that will happen. 
The review mechanism that Mr Finlayson referred to is also an important part of this. There is actually a process to allow the workings of the legislation to be reviewed and amendments to be suggested. 
Previous speakers have thanked all those many people who were involved with this bill in its genesis its development and its passage through this House. I reiterate those thanks because it has been a collective task with a large number of people doing enormously detailed and thorough work. 
Finally on top of that I add my personal thanks to Ministry of Justice advisers; to the Justice and Electoral Committee which gave such helpful advice; to the clerks of the committee; to the Parliamentary Counsel Office which provided such fantastic advice as well; to the special adviser the Hon Robert Fisher; and to my colleagues on the subcommittee all of whom were lawyers apart from myself. They were enormously helpful to me as a lay person sometimes struggling to understand complex material. They were always willing to provide me with advice and information and to give serious consideration to what must have often appeared to be naive questions on my part. They were also willing to take on board some of my suggestions. So thank you.