Upston Louise; Mallard TrevorHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to follow up on some comments from some of the earlier speakers in this general debate which really—although COVID is a significant part of what the country is facing at the moment we do have some long-term challenges that we must also continue to focus on. So I commend New Zealand First and the Greens raising the issue of sexual violence and particularly sexual violence on children but what I do ask is that the Minister for Children the Hon Tracey Martin corrects her statements in the House this afternoon about written questions from the Opposition because she has clearly been inaccurate. I look forward to her correcting her statement about the last question being received from the Opposition in August 2018. I've got a whole stack of them here that are clearly well after that date. But the point of this—it's again an example where there's been talk of the importance of protecting in particular children from sexual violence. It absolutely staggered me and staggered the Opposition this weekend to find that the Government—Labour New Zealand First and the Greens—had stripped New Zealand's most significant national advocate for the survivors of sexual violence Louise Nicholas of any funding. It absolutely staggers the Opposition and staggered New Zealand from one end to the other because any time you think about sexual violence in New Zealand the one name that comes up time and time again is Louise Nicholas a woman who has tirelessly worked with the most vulnerable victims of New Zealand whether they are children whether they are men women and single or multiple sexual violence assaults. So it's staggering that in this House two of those three political parties have talked today about the fact that we need to address this long-term challenge and the one person that is trusted more than anyone else in New Zealand this Government has stripped of funding so she can't work with the most vulnerable New Zealanders.Hon Andrew Little: The member's wrong.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: So I've got some questions that I want the Government to answer. Andrew Little says I'm wrong—great. Here are some questions for Andrew Little. What involvement have you had—Andrew Little Carmel Sepuloni Poto Williams—in the decision to cease funding for the one national advocate for sexual violence survivors?Hon Andrew Little: Put down a question.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Actually what's happening is unfortunately we're still seeing a growing number of sexual violence assaults—Hon Andrew Little: Why is the member avoiding the issue?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: —a growing number. And Minister Andrew Little doesn't want us to talk about it—doesn't want us to talk about it. This is the second to last week of the Parliament sitting so absolutely this is the perfect opportunity to ask the Government: why are you not supporting a national advocacy service by Louise Nicholas? Because I suspect—here's what I suspect: I suspect she's asked the Government a few too many hard questions or has it got anything to do with the fact that she publicly criticised the Labour Party in their own response about sexual assault within their own party? Maybe. What is absolutely critical in New Zealand is that the public have a voice they trust and that side has just silenced them—has just silenced an advocate for sexual violence survivors. So it was pretty disturbing for Opposition members to read that. The interesting thing is—the part that's even worse than that and I come back to the Minister for Children because there will be no advocacy for children under the age of 18 for sexual violence assault—zero. A Government department can't do it themselves and the critical part of a national advocacy service is the independence. But I don't think the Government likes it. I don't think the Government likes independence because they're challenged questions are asked and they don't like the questions which is why National will fully support Louise Nicholas' advocacy.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.SPEAKER: In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee the House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. on Tuesday 1 September 2020.The House adjourned at 3.58 p.m.