Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): I am happy to respond to the points that have been made by a couple of members in the Committee stage. In respect of the issue of military deaths these issues were well canvassed at the Justice and Electoral Committee as my colleague Jacqui Dean noted and the concern that has been expressed by members of the Opposition is whether a coronial inquiry is a more appropriate mechanism for investigating a death where a person serving in the New Zealand armed forces is killed overseas. I think the really important point in making a judgment about whether the investigation will be independent or not is the fact that the New Zealand coronial inquiry is going to be totally dependent on the information that is provided by the Defence Force. The idea that somehow if the Defence Force—and I am not ill-disposed; my view is that our senior Defence Force personnel grieve at least as much as if not more than we parliamentarians when we lose a member of our armed forces so I do not buy into the rhetoric that somehow there will be some cover-up. But even if you do accept that rhetoric my point would be that if the Defence Force is going to control all the circumstantial evidence about what occurred in a foreign country such as Afghanistan then a coronial inquiry is no protection against it.Equally if we look at the experience of the United Kingdom it is absolutely clear from the experience of coronial inquiries that you then have in a public forum that defence forces having to disclose what their tactics are and what the capability of their equipment is in a public forum is actually contrary to the interests of protecting the people who serve in the armed forces. Actually telling others in other countries what we are able to do and how we operate to try to win conflicts is not in the interests of the safety of our brave men and women who serve in our armed forces. The final point I would make in that regard is that this bill proposes that if there are exceptional circumstances then the Attorney-General is able to have a coronial inquiry.In respect of the issues that were raised by the Green Party about the issues of deaths in custody of the Department of Corrections what we have now in the law is a blanket requirement for there to be a coronial inquiry into all cases of deaths that occur within our prisons. Actually there are circumstances in which prisoners die entirely as a consequence of natural causes. To put the system to the automatic expense of going to a full coronial inquiry is so typical from the Greens who never face the reality that there are limited resources and that we want the resources of the coroner focused on those cases where there are the most lessons to be learnt in order for us to ensure matters of public safety.In respect of the last issue—whether we have got the balance right in the reporting of suicide—this bill makes a modest allowance for social media and for more open reporting of suicides; although it still sticks with the clear scientific evidence that if suicides are reported inappropriately there is actually a risk that we in fact increase the risks to the wider community. So in my view the provisions of this part as have been appropriately dealt with by the select committee and with the amendments in the Supplementary Order Paper provide the right advances for the improvements in our coroners' laws in a way that maximises the safety of the public while still ensuring that our coronial system provides the reports where they are needed so that we can learn and prevent deaths in future.