Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this the third and final reading of the Military Justice Legislation Amendment Bill. It's a pleasure to do so as I start in particular by saluting the men and women of the New Zealand Defence Force. I thank them for their service and also those in particular who have been involved in helping the legislative process of putting together this bill.The defence forces have been a solid and continuous feature of our national security for many years. While politicians come and go it's our military that's charged with keeping us safe on the international stage—indeed the national stage too to the extent that they are involved in non-traditional military operations such as search and rescue and disaster recovery and the like. I'd like to acknowledge and thank Ministers past and present for their work in bringing the bill to the House and indeed to this relatively late stage. I see the current Minister of Defence is present with us so I acknowledge him in particular and also the officials and advisers who have been an integral part of putting together the bill that we have before us now such that my fellow members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and I have been able to contemplate it.I think a helpful context for a discussion involving military justice is the relationship between discipline and morale. Morale it's almost a truism to say is crucial within a defence context to make the boat go faster if it's a warship—I start with the navy for parochial reasons—or the aircraft to fly that much better or for the soldiers to march that much further or whatever the appropriate analogy might be. But it's crucial to have good morale and an aspect of that is to have discipline within the units of the Defence Force that the various women and men of our Defence Force can rely upon in relation to fairness equality and certainty. Those values like in the rule of law that applies to all New Zealanders are reflected in particular provisions of this bill that helpfully reverse some anomalies that other members have already spoken of.In the context of the Defence Force—particularly the navy with which I have some familiarity—we used to talk about lower-deck lawyers and cuff-rate lawyers somewhat disparaging about those of our colleagues who—Hon Ron Mark: Barrack-room lawyers.CHRIS PENK: Barrack-room lawyers? Excellent—very good. Well I've had an army equivalent educated to me by the Minister of Defence so I thank him for that. So the general principle seems to be that the Defence Force has no shortage of people who are willing to tell others about their rights and responsibilities and indeed that's a healthy thing. A natural consequence of that I think sometimes is that there are urban legends that prevail whereby all kinds of stories and explanations might go around the mess decks about what is and is not the case regarding military justice.I think if the average soldier sailor or airman had been told upon joining that their rights were such that if they were accused in fact of a crime in a military context they would not have the right to rely on the standard burden of proof provisions of the law I think they would be amazed and probably somewhat disbelieving of such rough and ready advice. However as we have heard that is indeed the case as it stands now but perhaps not shortly—hopefully not shortly—once the bill passes. The Armed Forces Discipline Act currently states in section 3(2) that the onus is on the accused to prove on the balance of probabilities any excuse exception exemption or qualification" that the accused relies on as a defence to a charge. It was explained quite clearly and I think accepted very readily by members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee that this was an anomaly to the extent that it departed from the general standard of New Zealand law—indeed Westminster and common law justice systems throughout the ages and across the waters—so it makes sense to be righting that wrong by the passage of this legislation now.A couple of other aspects of the bill have not been touched on so much in these parliamentary debates. They are I suppose less arresting in the sense that they are not such major headline kinds of events but none the less it is worth noting perhaps at least in passing that the Court Martial Act 2007 for example is being amended by this legislation so that there can be a situation in which a particular person might be inappropriate to be sitting as a military member on such a court martial. There is provision now for that to be objected to in a way that you would expect in any sort of judicial or quasi-judicial process whereby a decision maker is expected to be fully above board in all respects in relation to that particular case.So with no further ado I'll join colleagues across the House in congratulating those involved in the passage of the bill thanking members of our New Zealand Defence Force and I look forward to the implementation and passing into law of the Military Justice Legislation Amendment Bill."