Martin TraceyTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): I stand on behalf of New Zealand First to address the House on the first reading of the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill. First of all can I add my voice to the congratulations to Minister Adams. As Jacinda Ardern mentioned in her contribution the Labour Party and the Green Party did write to the Minister and sent her a letter asking for the opportunity to work with her on a piece of legislation like this and on the review that she did prior to this bill coming to the House. The Minister was kind enough to include New Zealand First as another member of the Opposition in those conversations so we appreciated that. I also note that some of the work put in by New Zealand First has found itself inside this piece of legislation. So we appreciate her openness and her invitation to participate and we actually support the comments by our Green colleague Jan Logie that we do not underestimate the amount of effort that has had to go into bringing this bill to the House even if we support it with reservations—and that is the comment that needs to be recorded from New Zealand First's perspective. We are supporting this bill at its first reading but we have some severe reservations and we hope that like others have mentioned the select committee process will bring out all those who are affected by what is this awful secret. It is something that we try to keep secret about New Zealand society and I think of Jan Logie's description—if this was a disease if this was an epidemic of typhoid for example the amount of effort and the speed with which it was being addressed the money that was being put in would be instantaneous. There would not be a conversation about it. There would not be a conversation about whether it was necessary or not to invest money into an issue such as that and yet this is an epidemic inside New Zealand.Inside the bill some of the concerns that we have are these. First of all and I am going to say this the title interests us. What is the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill? Nowhere else is the word whānau" actually mentioned inside that bill so we do not understand what that is about and if the bill needs to be called the "Whānau Violence Legislation Bill" then let us do that. I see that we have seen grandmothers in the Hawke's Bay stand up recently and say: "We're being beaten about by family members who are P addicts." So that is family violence. That is whānau violence. If that is what this bill is about then just name it for what it is.The two names are a duplication of a name and it either shows a lack of understanding about what the words actually mean or for some other reason somebody has decided they have to tack this on in there. So we would like to know what the story is with the title. It is completely unnecessary and although it might seem a really small point in what is a big issue that we are trying to address in our view it starts to reinforce some negative stereotypes and some separation. And there is no separation here; this is a New Zealand issue.There are a couple of other things around the wider range of safety non-violence programmes and prescribed services to be ordered when a safety order or a protection order is imposed. We are very pleased to see that. We are very pleased to see that because we have to—and the Minister spoke to it—change behaviours here. The majority of this bill deals with the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. The majority of what is being invested in this issue at the moment deals with what happens after violence has occurred and we have to shift our focus and our investment.When I talk about investment—and again we hope that this is something that will come forward—right now it is estimated that family violence costs New Zealand between $4.1 billion and $7 billion per year. At the moment we spend $60 million per year on a response to family violence and most of that is after the event. In the bill the budget that has been set aside for the new conditions that are going to be implemented here suggests that it is going to increase the costs to around about $130 million over 4 years. Well that is just another $32 million per year and it is just not enough.If we compare this with what we do around road accidents we see that road accidents cost $3.4 billion per year and we spend $297 million per year on trying to prevent them. Domestic violence costs us between $4.1 billion to $7 billion per year and we spend only $60 million and it is going to go up only by $32 million under this piece of legislation. It is not enough and the select committee needs to look at widening the education programmes under that particular clause in this bill.I want to mention programmes for example and education has been mentioned. Can I just say to the member Sarah Dowie with her contribution that under the umbrella of what was domestic violence which is now called family violence one of the recognised bullet points under that description is that if a child is present when violence takes place they are a victim. So they are a victim. When we look under that umbrella we have got several levels of victim and they must all be addressed. We would suggest programmes like the women's refuge in Rodney with regard to the healthy relationships programme where year 10s participate in the ability to recognise coercive control in themselves and in others—coercive control being the lowest-reported but probably the most insidious level of violence that we have in this country. It leads not only to just control but generally to violence. If we can stop coercive control or minimise coercive control through education programmes in our schools which need to be funded by the State for every student we have an opportunity to change the culture within a generation.We have a crisis of anxiety inside our schools at the moment that counsellors will tell you about. There are young people who do not want to come to school. It is not because they do not want to come to school; it is because they are too frightened to leave home. Their very presence—and again it has been suggested in here—puts a chilling factor on violence so they feel responsible to stay inside their homes to protect the parent who could possibly be the victim. There are opportunities here for this to be addressed and invested in further and we hope that the select committee will actually raise those issues and go forward with them.Again we have complimented the Minister on the fact that she has brought this to the House. But let us be clear: this has been coming for a long time. I want to acknowledge the National Council of Women and what was in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) account. The CEDAW report which the National Council of Women noted in 2007 had a recommendation that has finally found its way into the bill which is great: "The Committee recommends that training be enhanced for the judiciary public officials law enforcement personnel and health-service providers". We would suggest that the select committee have a look at funding Women's Refuge across New Zealand as the provider of that training. They should be funded in a similar way to how the School Trustees Association is funded—as experts having to deal on the front line as trainers that are providing it now are doing so on a piece-by-piece basis predominantly for free. Actually the select committee should look at them as an organisation along perhaps with the Māori Women's Welfare League or others who have been on the front line of this issue for so long as being the training providers and finally funding Women's Refuge to a level that it should be funded at.We also note that in 2012 it was reported that "High levels of violence against women are still evident and NGOs consider that more women are disadvantaged by violence than any other factor. While a Government campaign has raised awareness of domestic violence and led to increased reporting to police funding cuts have impacted on refuge services and women face higher barriers to accessing legal protection." Jan Logie mentioned it. Only today the police have come out and said they do not have the numbers or resources to deal with what is a wave of reporting around family violence. This cannot be done in isolation. This will require investment and it will require more investment than $32 million on top of the $60 million per year that is currently happening.The select committee I hope—and perhaps I will be able to sit in on it—will need to look at numbers and make a recommendation for the Government—whatever Government sits on those benches—to put into the Budget the amount of money that is going to be required to shift this issue in the New Zealand culture. We need to do it. We need to do it now. We have talked about it too long. New Zealand First will support the bill to the select committee and then we hope that the select committee will flesh it out a bit further. Kia ora."