King Matt; Williams PotoMATT KING (National—Northland): It's a real pleasure to speak on the Military Justice Legislation Amendment Bill in its second reading. First of all I'd like to acknowledge and welcome to the class of 2017" our newest MP Dan Bidois who made an exceptional maiden statement a couple of hours ago. I think he's going to be a great MP.I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Mark Mitchell for bringing this bill to the House and I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Ron Mark for taking it through the House. It's an omnibus bill. The purpose of this bill is to update the military justice system and to align it with the criminal justice system in certain respects including enhancing victims' rights. It amends the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971 the Court Martial Act 2007 and the Court Martial Appeals Act 1953.I've got a bit of experience with the criminal justice system—Hon Kris Faafoi: How long have you got? You've only got 10 minutes.MATT KING: Remember that interjections are meant to be witty—that's what the Speaker said. I am particularly interested in victims' rights based on my time as a police detective. I felt that the victim had no rights and that everything was weighted towards the offender. I can recall many times while I was taking a serious sexual offence case through the court process it felt like it was myself and the poor victim against the rest. So I'm really interested in anything that progresses victims' rights. Many times I felt that it was wrong and many times I felt like chucking it in. Eventually that's why I left the police. I felt a little burnt out and I felt someone else could pick up the load. Thankfully times are changing and good law is being made to address these issues.Part 3 of the Victim's Rights Act 2002 confers rights on the victims of certain serious offences of a sexual nature or that involve violence: the right to be kept informed to be consulted and most importantly to have their views taken into account in respect of decisions around bail. So this legislation seeks to align victims' rights and protections in the military justice system with those in the criminal justice system.This bill also amends some aspects of the procedures of the Court Martial of New Zealand. This bill aligns provisions governing whether an accused is unfit to stand in the military justice system and steps associated with that determination with the provisions of the Criminal Procedures (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003.It cleans up some procedural issues relating to courts martial. A key improvement in my view is the change to the onus of proof. I understand that under the Armed Forces Discipline Act 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. Provisions placing the onus of proof on the accused have largely been removed from the criminal justice system following the decision of the Supreme Court in R v Hansen in 2007. There is no good reason for members of the armed forces who are tried under the military justice system to have an onus of proof imposed on them that is not imposed in the criminal justice system. Accordingly the bill repeals section 3(2) of the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971.This along with the improvements to victims' rights in my view are the most important changes in this bill. Accordingly I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Before I call the next member I just want to encourage members who have been in the House for several months now that it's the expectation that members will not read speeches and that when they are in the debating chamber they will actually deliver arguments from notes only. So this is the last time I'm going to mention it. Next time I will be stopping members from reading speeches except for our newest member who arrived in the House today."