Moroney Sue: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak in support of the Hon Peter Dunne’s amendment in this section of the debate on this bill. I think this is a great day for our children today and I want people in the potential posturing that will happen about who was responsible or not for this amendment to remember that this legislation is about our children. I want members to stay very focused on that. 
One thing is very very clear: had we not got past the first and second readings of this bill we would not be at the position we are at today of even discussing this measure. So I particularly want to acknowledge the people who have brought us to this point. It starts with community organisations like Plunket Barnardos and Save the Children; the list is too long to mention them all individually. But those people and those community organisations stood up in what was actually a climate of fear and misinformation that had been created around this bill and said that yes that was what they were on about that was what they expected of their Parliament and that was the issue they wanted to campaign very strongly on. 
In getting past the first and second readings of course there had to be a bill which had to be pulled out of a ballot. I thank Sue Bradford for proposing and sponsoring this bill and for having the good fortune to have it pulled out of the ballot as well. That got us to the position of the first reading. I was very proud of Labour’s position and stance in supporting this bill at its first and second readings. I am very proud to be part of the caucus that supported that course of action. Of course it took the Green Party and its support and the Maori Party and its support to get this bill to the point where we are looking at it today. 
I also want to make particular mention of individual members in other parties who voted in favour of the first and second readings—I think in very difficult circumstances and in taking a very very principled position without having the backing of their parties behind them. I feel very encouraged by and take my hat off to those particular members—members such as Brian Donnelly and Doug Woolerton from New Zealand First who stood purely on principle on this issue and who helped to get this bill through the first and second readings so that we could get to this point today. I want to acknowledge the Hon Peter Dunne’s very principled stand in the face of I am sure quite difficult criticism from some of the constituency that he will be communicating with regularly and to acknowledge the brave stance and courage he showed in helping to get the bill through the first and second readings. Katherine Rich who has also been acknowledged in previous speeches today stood firm in the face of dissension from the vast majority of her party to make sure that this bill had the hearing it deserved and to get us to this point. 
I am one of the members who was heavily lobbied on this bill because a couple of websites named me as being a family-friendly member of Parliament. I feel very proud of that because I think that the websites were anticipating that that would be something a Labour MP might not wear as a badge of pride. But I certainly do. I find that the Labour caucus is in fact a very family-friendly caucus and I add my name to those numbers. I would like to say that throughout this debate the phrase “being family-friendly” has been somewhat distorted. There has been quite a bit of fog around what some of these phrases mean. I believe that having this bill passed in this Parliament does mean that we can call ourselves a truly family-friendly society—that we can stand up as a Parliament without the bumper slogan stickers that happen around election campaigns and say yes we are voting to say that we are family-friendly. We are actually putting our votes where our mouths are; it is not just a slogan any longer. We are family-friendly we are standing up for children and we are standing up for parents in support of raising children in a dignified manner. Thank you.