Bennett PaulaHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): Thank you. I stand in support of this bill and the changes that are proposed. So I want to acknowledge that. I'm pleased to say thank you to the Minister for the work that's gone on and the continuation of the work that came through from the Law Commission in 2015 and seeing that the next stage of it now needs to be introduced. I'm pleased you did—I too was going to acknowledge the Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jan Logie for the work that she's doing in this area. I also note Minister that you called out to those experts and those that work in the field—to the chief victims' advocate and to people like that. I too while reading it was thinking they would have had a real genuine input to make during the process. And if there's one thing about people that work in the sector it is that they are not shy in putting their views forward and letting us know exactly what needs to be done and how it can be improved. In fact I recall very clearly many meetings with them where I learnt a lot very quickly and I very quickly got a huge respect for what they were doing. I think one of the things very early on was them teaching me the difference in response to domestic and sexual violence. I think like many previously I had run them together. I had understood the importance of them but it was them that taught me just how important it was that we had a very different response—to the point that they worked me so hard over a period of time that when I got a little bit more senior as a Minister I decided at their call that I would take on the role of being the lead Minister for sexual violence. Just recognising how hard it was for them to get their voices heard within Government trying to cross between all of the different agencies between all of the different Ministers and with all of the intentions of all of them I think in the right place—just an incredibly difficult place to navigate. If I'm going to be fair I don't think that it was put as a first or second priority by any of them so I felt like perhaps collectively doing it.There are many parts about it that certainly we as the National Party support and certainly for the complainants—now of course for some of them they can give their evidence via video link. This will strengthen that to make sure that it has to be available for them is the way that I read it. I think that that's a great thing. It is pretty daunting when you look at the statistics. I think this is one of those cases where you kind of go Statistics can be statistics because I'm not even sure they're right." When you think about how few are reported how few then even go through to trial and then how many actually form a prosecution it's hardly surprising when you speak to victims on why they haven't taken complaints to the police and then on to and through the court system when the re-victimisation is absolutely real for them. To be quite frank they're probably not encouraged by older women a lot because sometimes we look at them and see the trauma they're going through and worry about how they're going to work their way through what can often feel like a complete re-traumatisation. To see improvements for how they can give that evidence—one thing is and we are impressed and so I'm going to go there and then I'm going to say that we're going to be really interested in select committee as to how it goes through but it is the fact that the judge can educate the jury a little bit on what needs to be done. We very much support that the past sexual history of a woman in this case—but men as well who may be victims—is not brought in to the case and is absolutely not relevant in any way shape or form.What we are interested in exploring though in the name of fairness of our justice system and ensuring that there is a fairness of defence and prosecution in that are some questions from the lawyers in our caucus in particular around alcohol consumption. We were just concerned about how much that might be brought into it—from one aspect that in respect of the fact that a woman may have been sexually violated it has no relevance whatsoever in her ability to give evidence and recall. We did feel that there needs to be at least a "defence may be able to question" and so we wanted to just check where that line is in the rights of someone to defend. So as I say there is absolutely no question about any levels of intoxication. Whether or not that justifies or doesn't or gives consent or doesn't that is not our issue; the issue is actually a defence if it comes into it. So just as a caucus we wanted to make sure we could test that perhaps a little bit through the select committee process if we might as to where that lies. I also couldn't help but take this chance to shout out for the integrated service response and the work that is going on within that all-of-Government response—which I know is not all of Government but I see that work being led right across so many different Government agencies. Then of course there are the incredible non-Government organisations that I think do even more exceptional work than sometimes within Government. When you see that work going on: the sharing of information the one plan and the one contact point for victims whether that's around sexual or domestic violence—can I just say that we would just support any work that the Minister or his Government wants to do in that area. Actually sorry to the under-secretary as well—I know that's work that you lead. So to Jan Logie you know any way that we can assist in that work we'd just hugely advocate for it. It's not perfect—none of it's ever going to be because each circumstance is so individual and unique in so many ways but we do think that it is definitely the way forward in what we can do. I commend other previous Ministers that of course have done that work. I also just wanted to touch on a couple of others. So for us I have questions as well around training judges and looked for that.Hon Andrew Little: So do we.Hon PAULA BENNETT: Is it in there? So you're nodding—he's kind of nodding. That's certainly work that needs to be done in my opinion—dear judges: not criticising; just putting it out there because we all need to upskill. I probably botched that up a little bit. But because this is so incredibly specialised and particularly if a judge is going to be directing a jury I think that that work with them—and with all respect to judges I think they would welcome it because they always want to do the best possible job that they can do. So there was something we thought in that training of judges and making sure that they've got a little bit more information so that they can be actually looking at what that traumatisation really means and how it can be affected within it. A couple of other areas that—I am going to have to put my glasses on so that I can sort of see. I just did think it was worth you know really putting on record in this first reading speech that for every 100 sexual violence incidents that are reported to the police figures show that only 31 actually make it to court and 11 result in a conviction and only six of that 100 in imprisonment. When you look at that you can see why. I certainly think that some of these changes genuinely need to be made.Can I also—and I do see her up in the gallery—give a shout-out to Dr Kim McGregor and the work that she is doing on behalf of victims—and what a good appointment that was Amy Adams—and the work that she's doing for victims across the board in this area. I know that she's had a huge input into having their voices heard and some of these changes that need to be made.Look I can go through them but the Minister's actually done a much better job than I will. I think it's just for me to say that from our perspective yes we do want to ensure that there is fairness fairness for a defence in that they can come forward. I certainly have worked with victims of sexual violence but I'm also a stepmum to a son and a sister to brothers and a person that appreciates that there are a range of unique circumstances and that actually men—and I am saying men in these circumstances because it is usually the majority. We must make sure that it is fair and that we have a justice system that we are proud of.But in that respect I think that for the bulk of the changes that are being put forward then certainly I support them and welcome that to go through the select committee and look at changes potentially towards the end. Thank you."