Henare Peeni: Evidence Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Evidence Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5088. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker and thank you very much. It is an honour to rise and speak on the Evidence Amendment Bill today and I would like to echo the sentiments of my colleague the Hon David Parker to the Minister the Hon Louise Upston who I thought gave a very good speech in introducing this bill to the House. It was sensitive well constructed and certainly laid out a fair amount of the detail. That is important because as the general policy statement in the explanatory note of the Evidence Amendment Bill states: “This Bill makes a number of minor and technical amendments …”. I think the sheer nature of the discussions and debates that have happened in this House so far to date on the bill show that although minor and technical it is very important. So I do want to commend the Minister and I do look forward as a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee to having this bill come in front of our committee and us being allowed to pore over the detail and the fine print.We in the Labour Party support this bill. I want to pick up on a couple of points that the chair of the Justice and Electoral Committee Jacqui Dean mentioned in her contribution in the House today and one those points was really about putting the victim at the forefront of all our thinking when we consider bills like this. It is important that we do that and just as important as she mentioned too is that we wrap the correct services and support around the victims. In particular in this case the bill talks of children our most vulnerable in this country and it is important that we get this process right. So although I agree that this legislation is a step in the right direction it is but one step. I do acknowledge that some of the other bills that we have supported through the House in recent times add to that jigsaw puzzle that is looking after the victims and I support that.It is clear that the bill makes a number of amendments to the Evidence Act 2006 following a review by the Law Commission. I spoke briefly about how we need to wrap these support services around the victim. Another point that the member Jacqui Dean mentioned was a support person for our tamariki or the children who are required to give evidence. It is a good thing to have a support person for our most vulnerable our children when they go through this particular process but I want to make a point in my contribution about the nature of that support person. We know it is important to have family but often as we know in cases such as this family or wider family are involved. I just wonder what kind of influence a support person may have on the child before they give evidence. Perhaps that is something that we can debate or discuss a bit further in the select committee process.There was a report prepared by the Auckland University of Technology in 2010 that looked at this particular issue and it highlighted two very important points. One of those was the length of time that the child had to wait before giving evidence. It was approximately something like 15 months and that is as we would all agree I am sure arguably too long. However it is important that the trial must go through its process. It must be fair for all sides and it must be able to be considered properly and appropriately.The reason I mention that is that not too long ago I was called to jury service in a particular case about which I will not speak in too much detail on. It was clear sitting there as a juror just how hard these cases can be on children and young people who have to present in front of—as the members have already mentioned—such a daunting audience. You have your judge you have the jurors you have lawyers and also the person whom the charges are brought against. I think it is about time that as technology progresses so fast—although we may say it is just a video recording or it is a video conference or closed-circuit television it is important that we use the technology of the day and in this particular case the bill does allow for those provisions for our children to be cared for. I want to also mention the great work by my colleague Kelvin Davis who has stood up and indeed during the campaign campaigned against sexual violence. I know that he actually just flicked through a text and he is very happy that this particular bill has come up and he along with all of us will support it into the select committee.These are sensible changes. They are a step in the right direction. The protections of victims do need to extend beyond the courtroom interactions however. This is why at the beginning of my contribution I talked about a full wraparound service. I would be interested as this bill progresses to see what that looks like. It is not just about the time at which the child or the victim gives the evidence; it is about the entire process: how they are supported while the trial is going on and how they are supported post-trial. It is the whole wraparound service that we need to get right in order as the bill states for the child or the victim to move on. It is appropriate that we get that right so that the children can move on with their lives.I will not talk too much longer on this bill. We do support it here on this side of the House. We look forward to it going to the select committee of which I and of course members from across all parties are on and we look forward to debating this as it moves forward. I want to once again thank the Minister for her kind words in the introduction of this bill. Kia ora.