Smith Murray: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Smith Murray: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:620;Page:15575] 
1. MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Justice 
: Is he satisfied that the Care of Children Bill supports parents in fulfilling their responsibilities to their children; if so why? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Associate Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Yes. In addition to establishing a principle that the welfare and best interests of a child are to be paramount the bill acknowledges the primary responsibility of parents in the care of their children and contains a number of provisions to support that role. 
Murray Smith 
: Does he see the irony that the parents of a girl aged between 11 and 16 years are required to know whether she is fed her whereabouts that she is attending school not drinking alcohol not taking other drugs and her progress at school yet are excluded from information that is necessary to help them provide such care and support if she seeks an abortion or is sexually assaulted; if not how does he answer the concerns of the loving mother of the 14-year-old girl who was raped and contracted a sexually transmitted disease yet she was not told this critical information even though the events affected all those aspects of her daughter’s life? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I understand that most young women do involve their parents in such decisions and that it is best practice for health professionals to encourage them to do so. However in the small number of cases where young women do not involve their parents there are good reasons not to such as an abusive family environment. It is exactly that protection that the Supplementary Order Paper to the bill seeks to remove. 
Moana Mackey 
: What does he believe would be the result of Parliament overturning the consensus of the last 27 years regarding the rights of young women to seek professional medical advice to make their own decisions about pregnancy and abortion and to have the privacy of that decision protected? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I am advised by health professionals and agree with them entirely that interfering with the current law will lead to more dangerous later-term abortions the increased risk of dangerous self-induced abortions and an increased risk of unsafe illegal backyard abortions. That is also the advice of the New Zealand Medical Association and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners which between them represent some 5000 health professionals in this country. 
Judith Collins 
: What message did he think he was giving to paedophiles and child abusers when he said in relation to a 12-year-old girl that if she is sexually mature and she is pregnant she is also a woman? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I meant that it would be quite wrong to assume that young women are not capable of being involved in this kind of decision making and that their views should not be ignored as is being advocated by National simply because of their age. Neither the current law nor the royal commission of inquiry 27 years ago thought that an appropriate course of action. 
Dail Jones 
: Why does the Government intend to pursue this bill which fails to deal adequately with the care of children in violent relationships; and if it does intend to continue with the bill will there be a lengthy Supplementary Order Paper to deal with its failings? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I do not agree with the premise of the questioner. The answer to whether we will continue with the bill is yes. 
Dail Jones 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked whether there will be a Supplementary Order Paper and I did not get a response to that question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member asked a previous question. The Minister has to address only one if he wishes as I ruled. 
Dail Jones 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Sometimes members ask three questions at the same time. I asked only two questions. Are you now saying that Ministers have to answer only one? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: As I said before that is up to the Minister. 
Murray Smith 
: Does the Associate Minister accept that the Royal Commission to inquire into and report on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in recommending at page 277 of its 1977 report that a girl should have the final right of say on abortion predicated that on the assumption that the parents would have had an opportunity not only to know of the situation but to participate in the child’s counselling sessions? 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I am aware of the recommendation of the royal commission that the removal of this right of a young woman would be cruel and unnatural. 
Judith Collins 
: I seek leave to table a transcript of yesterday’s  
Morning Report 
 programme quoting the honourable Minister David Benson-Pope referring to a 12-year-old girl as being sexually mature and pregnant and that she is then also a woman. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: I seek leave to table three documents. The first one is a letter from the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and the New Zealand Medical Association. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: The second document is a public address web log of yesterday referring to this issue. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE 
: The third one is a briefing paper from the American Civil Liberties Union in the United States on this matter. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is.