Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Just following on from previous speakers in this debate I think everyone's pretty much of the same ilk: that we need to actually make sure that the military justice legislation is updated so that there is treatment in the military system that is commensurate with what you would get in the criminal justice system and so that there is no sense that victims or those that are going through the system have a different approach that could be to the detriment of themselves—and taking into account that this bill has the support of the parties in this House to make sure it goes through. When we look at this bill it was introduced by the previous Minister in 2017 as part of that adjustment and renewal of the military justice system.First I want to just acknowledge those great men and women that serve in our country's armed forces and put their lives on the line for our country's safety and security. Their dedication to New Zealand is second to none and they deserve to have the best of our justice systems as well for anybody that may find themselves in a situation needing that. So I think that's important.I'd just like to acknowledge the other Minister here Minister Ron Mark who's taking this bill through and the parties that will be voting for it in the House here today. As has been said by other speakers it does bring military proceedings into line with those in the civilian courts where the onus is on the prosecution to prove that the accused is guilty. It also makes some changes around the procedure of court martial in New Zealand aligning the provisions relating to fitness to stand with the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and allowing a process for objecting to and substituting military members of the court martial.When we look at those military members of the court martial there is a couple of things in there that it does focus on and that's objection to a military member or substitution of a military member. So the objection—currently there's no ability for objection from the prosecutor. This would enable the process for that to happen and that's an important part of any justice system. Substituting a military member—this can be assigned to the court if the military member dies or is absent or retires or is found guilty of contempt. So this bill amends the Court Martial Act to provide that a substitute military member cannot be appointed after the accused has entered a plea and that's an important part of our natural justice system as well.The third area of real change is around the onus of proof and section 3(2) of the Armed Forces Discipline Act provides 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 defence to a charge. This provision is something that has been looked at in this bill. The bill repeals section 3(2) of the Armed Forces Discipline Act as they should be tried just as in any other criminal justice system where they have been considered innocent until proven guilty.So this is a bill which I should imagine would have full support through the House and we look forward to it passing through."