O'Rourke Denis: Human Rights Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Human Rights Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11889. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): New Zealand First will continue to support this bill and we have supported it from the beginning because we think that support has been well justified. I am glad to see all of the other Opposition parties have now seen their way clear to support it as well because we think this is a good piece of legislation. The major change concerns the roles of the commissioners. There must be a commissioner to lead each of the priority areas but now they will not lose their designation in their specialised areas as some had feared. So I suppose that is a good thing. I do not think that is such a huge deal myself but it is a good thing and that change has been made.The permanent priority areas are disability rights equal employment opportunities and race relations. The Chief Human Rights Commissioner will now be able to designate a commissioner to lead work in other priority areas of human rights and we in New Zealand First are particularly pleased about that and it is why we have supported the bill from the beginning. The expansion of the work of the Human Rights Commission into other areas of human rights is exactly fundamental to New Zealand First policy and exactly what this bill does. We are very pleased by it and as I have said we have always supported it for that reason. I note also that in choosing those new priority areas the chief commissioner must consult of course with the other commissioners which is natural but also with the Minister. I know that some have been concerned about that but consultation actually is not direction and it is appropriate in these circumstances for the Minister to have input. I have never been worried that in this context the Minister would ever have been able to direct the commission. So I think the concerns about that have been largely misplaced.The most important change in the bill as I have said is the ability to designate lead areas and other areas of human rights. One of the reasons why New Zealand Frist is so pleased about that is we are very concerned about some of those other areas. One of them is elderly persons’ rights for example. Ageism is rife in New Zealand nothing is being done about it and it needs attention. In addition to that there is the whole area of elder abuse. Elder abuse is an equally extremely important problem in New Zealand and I do not think it is being properly addressed and perhaps the Human Rights Commission can do something about that. We very much hope that one of the new priority areas that will be designated in the future will be that whole area relating to the rights of elderly people in New Zealand.These new priority areas must be chosen to quote from new section 8(1B) inserted by clause 6 “in accordance with the strategic direction and the general nature of activities determined by the Commission under section 7(1)”. That allows the commissioner indeed to designate new priority areas but the important thing is that it has to be done in accordance with a strategy to be established and determined jointly by all of the commissioners acting together. New Zealand First is again particularly pleased by that approach because although it allows the specialisation that is required it also allows the commissioners to act together to choose new priority areas. As I have already said that is what New Zealand First has always wanted to happen particularly.Finally another important change that we particularly approve of is the need for the appointment of suitable people in each of those new priority areas. Under new section 13 in clause 9 I see the Minister must have regard to firstly the candidate’s understanding of the principles and practice relating to the relevant priority area; secondly their appreciation of the issues in the area internationally; and thirdly their ability to carry out the functions specified in new section 16 in clause 12. Those have been amended too. They relate to ensuring that the person has skills in leadership ability and the ability to contribute to public debate in the particular area where that person has expertise.We in New Zealand First feel that that is a very valuable addition to the legislation governing the Human Rights Commission. All too often in the past I think there has been an element of political appointment to some of those Human Rights Commission roles and that is not appropriate. We are glad to see these criteria will now have to apply. That is very important.We have always thought this is a good piece of legislation for the reasons I have already stated. We still support it. We are very happy to continue to support it now.