Sio William: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 19 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13574. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I want to acknowledge and congratulate New Zealand today as we celebrate Women’s Suffrage Day. It has been 120 years since women were given the right to vote. Today marks a very powerful example of the strength and power of a small nation like New Zealand doing the right thing and leading the rest of the world. I think it is proper during this debate to pay tribute to the many women who suffered physically as well as emotionally during that struggle and even today I suspect there is still a lot of that suffering.I think it is also important to reflect and to acknowledge those men—husbands sons fathers and brothers—who stood shoulder to shoulder with the women in the struggle to defend to protect and to advocate for this fundamental basic right all those years ago and even today. In my mind the struggle of women is the struggle for political freedom. It is the struggle for the right to be respected and to sit at the highest table of decision making in this country. It is the struggle for economic freedom where every woman receives equal pay for work of equal value. It is the struggle for basic freedoms—simple things like the freedom to live where one wants to live work where one wants to work or to travel where one wants to travel. It can even be about simple things like eating what one wants. I think that for the most part women have experienced those struggles and they have a deeper understanding than most people. But I also think that the struggles are similar forMāori Pasifika ethnic communities and all working communities which leads me this debate on the 10 bills that were formerly part of the Family Court Proceedings Reform Bill.On the commemoration of women’s suffrage this Government is passing into law legislation that will again widen the gap of inequality between those who have economic and political power and those who do not. I suspect that those who will sufferthe greatest as a result of the injustices and the inequality that these bills will throw up will be primarily women and children. The legislation limits access to court-funded counselling. It limits access to legal aid. It establishes a mandatory private non-judicial process which means that the parties to the process have to meet the cost and the cost I understand from the recommendation from the advisers could possibly be about $900. I suspect that if people have to pay that amount of money then they are not going to be able to access justice.So to sum it all up the legislation means that vulnerable communities particularly women and children and young people who may find themselves in disputes requiring legal support and legal aid will find themselves being denied access to justice. They will find themselves being outside the doors of our courts and of support. In my electorate we have theMāngere Community Law Centre. That centre in addition to the others that service the Manukau region experienced the highest need for legal aid and yet we see that this legislation will limit the access to aid for people who require support.There is also an example of the difficulties that I foresee happening. About a week or so ago a family home in Manukau was broken into by police in error. Today that family is still trying to resolve that because the police have failed to admit to the error that they have committed and the family is still waiting for the police to try to resolve that and pay for the damage that was caused. Luckily the woman whose family this is knows a little bit about the law so she was able to step up and say “Look somebody’s done injustice to me.” But I have to say that in that regard there were other families whose homes were also broken into by police while they were looking for the offender.The point I am making is that a lot of vulnerable families have difficulty accessing justice at the moment and since the Government has come into power over the last 5 years we have seen cuts to funding of the sources of support that people would normally receive—legal aid for example. That is the point I am making here. That is what this legislation is going to do. It is going to put more and more vulnerable communities particularly women and children in positions where they will need support but they will not be able to access support. They will need legal aid but they will not be able to access legal aid. They will need justice but they will not be able to access justice.The point I am making is that if we are serious and genuine about supporting and giving strength to our communities about ensuring that they have access to legal aid and to our justice system then of course there has to be a cost to that. Of course we have got to pay for that. That is what society is about. That is what democracy is about. But I note that the Government does not care about that.I will give an example of the need for having support when people are in dispute. In the Samoan world there are two processes that currently exist for giving support to people who are in dispute because we know that if you do not provide that kind of support then there is going to be harm caused generally to those people involved. Often thebreakups that occur as a result of these disputes make it so difficult for resolution. The first example is thefautuaga o matuafautuaga o aiga. It is the ability of parents the ability of elders and the ability of the collective to come together and give counsel and give advice in the form of a meeting to enable the disputing parties to resolve their dispute. It does not matter whether it is a private matter. We know that without outside and external help those in dispute will not be able to resolve that dispute by themselves.I suppose people might recall the movie“Crocodile” Dundee when Crocodile Dundee says “In this small village if one has a problem all we’ve got to do is tell somebody else and they will tell everybody else and very soon we won’t have a problem.” There might be a funny side but the reality is that the constant in the process is the need to have external assistance and support when there are parties in dispute.That is what happens in employment relationships and it also happens in family relationships. Then there isifoga in the Samoan world. If you have seen the movieThe Orator you will have seen a little bit about that and how that takes place. But essentially there is a need for external assistance whether it be legal aid whether it be lawyers to help resolve the dispute that occurs.If you do not have access to that kind of support then what happens to those in dispute? People suffer and relationships break up. Is that truly what we are about? On this side of the House that is not what we are about. We are about building strong resilient communities and those come only from strong resilient families. We accept that as part and parcel of ordinary life there is always going to be dispute and if you accept that you also need to accept that as part of the resolution process part of the reconciliation process and part of the healing process there is a need for legal aid there is a need for legal assistance there is a need for representation and there is a need for justice.I have to say that I agree with what has been said earlier by my colleagues which is that this legislation as it stands denies the basic and fundamental right for ordinary and vulnerable communities in particular to be able to access justice. Shame on the Government for passing this legislation on the day that we celebrate women’s suffrage! And the worst of it is that this legislation is in the name of a woman Minister Judith Collins. I think that a lot of women will be holding their heads down in shame and thinking: “On this particular day when we when we should all be celebrating and being proud of our nation this is her legacy—denying women denying children and denying vulnerable communities access to justice.”