Yates Dianne: Crimes (Drug Rape) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Yates Dianne: Crimes (Drug Rape) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12680] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I thank the members of the House who have spoken in support of my bill and those parties who are supporting the bill—particularly those members who have been on the Law and Order Committee and who have heard from the victims. Some of the victims of drug rape who appeared before the public hearings of the select committee are the people who have been very strongly lobbying and who originally came to me advocating for a change in the law. They are people who have been through the courts. They are people who have seen what has happened when they are not believed in what is often a witness-less crime. They are people who did not get to the police and doctors in time to ascertain that the drugs were still in their system. They are people whose lives have been dramatically affected as Marian Hobbs has said and who have been affected for life. Their relationships since have been affected by their traumatic experiences with drug rape. 
I admit that the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) has superseded this bill and I have already said in my introductory speech that I prefer the wording of the new bill. I thank those people in the office of the Minister of Justice and at the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of Justice for the work they have done on the bill. They have more resources and more time and I believe they have come up with better wording. I remind Mr Franks that the word “stupefy” is not in the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) and I ask him to refer to that bill. A much more comprehensive definition of consent is in the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2). The two major points are there however. It includes proper definitions of consent that are clear and will be clear in the courts and secondly it also makes clear that to disable or stupefy—or whatever word we use—someone for the sake of sex is not approved by society and not approved in our law. 
To the United Future members I say that I seek their party’s support for this bill to go to the select committee. I am asking that it be heard and I say to the United Future party that I cannot see how anyone would be pro-rape and therefore could possibly vote against this bill and the considerations that would be made when both bills were before the Law and Order Committee. 
 I would also point out that it is not necessarily—as people have said—just young women or young men who are involved. The police assure me it is often men and women who are a little older who come back into the dating scene and the pub culture after having been in a stable relationship who are the most vulnerable and the most trusting and the ones who are the most likely to be victims of what is quite often a crime of professional people. They are the people who are most likely to be victims of that crime. 
As I have said I am looking forward to further consideration of this bill and the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) in the Law and Order Committee. I thank once again my Labour colleagues and members across the floor of the House generally for their support on this bill and once again I thank those very brave women who have allowed their stories to be heard in public. It is not an easy thing as members of the select committee have already said to appear before a select committee and talk about rape of oneself. It is a very brave thing to do. I look forward to the passage of this bill through the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2).