Stanford Erica; Tolley AnneERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise tonight to speak to the Coroners (Access to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill at the first reading. This is a small bill—in fact it's a tiny bill—but it will have a rather significant impact for many Kiwis at a very very difficult time in their lives. Around 31000 deaths occur in New Zealand each year of which 20 percent are referred to the coroner. That accounts for around 6200 Kiwi families who are dealing with a death in their family who are navigating a process that is necessary but is not always conducive to their way of grieving for their loved ones and herein lies the issue that this bill attempts to deal with.The bill implements one of the recommendations of the Māori Affairs Committee report which looks into whānau access to and management of deceased bodies to improve cultural considerations in the coronial system. The background to this piece of work is that the coroner is not currently required by law to take into account cultural requirements of the deceased and their families. In practice coroners use their discretion when considering such requests. My first question when looking at this bill was around whether or not there was actually a problem to be solved given that this discretion by the coroner already exists. After speaking to my learned colleagues I learnt and quickly discovered that yes in fact there was a problem. This discretion was being used by some coroners to varying degrees but overall cultural requirements were not been taken into account and this was having a rather devastating impact on some families and whānau as we just heard from Marama Davidson.The Māori Affairs Committee listened to whānau and their concerns around access to and freedom to make decisions about their deceased loved ones. They heard situations where whānau were not able to be with their deceased loved ones when police referred cases to the coroner. Look the ability to stay with a deceased person and carry out traditional activities is a really important feature of many cultures—as we've heard tonight—religions and different ethnicities. In tikanga Māori immediate family remain with their deceased loved one until that person is buried. In our increasingly multicultural society it's really important that we acknowledge these practices and that we ensure that during these really difficult times families are allowed to within reason carry them out.To that end as we've heard tonight this bill amends section 26 of the Coroners Act to require the coroner when determining whether a person's whānau member should be allowed to view touch or remain with the deceased to consider tikanga Māori and the expectation of other cultures. This bill takes that discretion that was available to the coroner and it makes cultural considerations a requirement. This bill I think strikes a really good balance between the cultural needs of whānau with the requirement for a timely and proper understanding of the causes of death.This is a good bill be it a small bill and a rather timely bill I believe given the internationally made statements from a well-known New Zealander regarding the state of New Zealand's race relations. I wouldn't repeat the exact statement that was made because that might get me in trouble with you Madam Deputy Speaker of course as the language was certainly not parliamentary. But the point is that this bill does go in some small way to addressing the concerns of that particular New Zealander. This bill recognises the lack of cultural acknowledgment in our coronial system and it requires that tikanga Māori and other cultural practices are followed. I am happy to support this bill to the select committee and I commend it to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is now a split call—five minutes each. I call Liz Craig.