Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. It is my pleasure as a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee to speak on this the Judicature Modernisation Bill that has been split into 23 bills and I will speak primarily to one soon. I want to just acknowledge the work of the Law Commission and its report Review of the Judicature Act 1908: Towards a New Courts Act. We really should acknowledge that that piece of work that it undertook actually has helped result in this legislation before the House. I would also like to thank the officials and also the select committee and previous select committees. I actually have had no active involvement in submissions and the process that the select committee went through to get to this point but now as a member of that select committee I get to speak on this the third reading.I just want to note a few things in terms of what this legislation will enable. It will provide for example the District Courts to deal with civil cases up to $350000 from $200000 so we are expanding the jurisdiction and I guess the cases that the District Court can hear. It is also improving flexibility for the court to limit vexatious proceedings and I am sure there will be members of the court system who will be happy to hear that. It also enables specialist panels of judges to be assigned to hear particular types of cases in the High Court. It was really interesting finding out where that came from and it was Issues Paper 29 that the Law Commission put out and it was actually replicating a system that currently operates in Australian courts. When I was looking at what types of specialist skills or specialist panels we are looking at the example that is given a lot in the literature that I have read is about commercial specialisation and maybe my colleague Clare Curran will talk about that. The rationale was actually about providing access to justice for the commercial community so I found that really an interesting rationale.I really want to spend most of my contribution on Te Ture Whenua Maori Amendment Bill and that is because during the Committee stage debate I did move a Supplementary Order Paper—it was Supplementary Order Paper 216—to ensure that that reform of section 7 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act was really clear that the Minister for Māori Development appoints the Māori Land Court judges and that was really to acknowledge the taonga that our whenua is. Māori land is so special and Māori and the connection and relationship between the whenua the landowners the Māori Land Court and the Minister for Māori Development from my perspective—and I think the perspective of many of us across the House—was that we should actually make it explicit in the legislation.What is made explicit in the legislation actually is that that is the responsibility of the Attorney-General. So we amended the legislation to now empower the Attorney-General to seek expressions of interest to appoint judges for the Māori Land Court but there is a really interesting clause in this Te Ture Whenua Maori Amendment Bill in new section 7(7) which says If the Attorney-General is not for the time being responsible for recommending the appointment of Judges of the court he or she must publish information explaining the responsible Minister's process for doing the things referred to in subsection (6)." which is his responsibility and autonomy in appointing and going out to the public to enable people who are suitably qualified to nominate for any vacancies.I do want to highlight as my colleague Metiria Turei did the fact that the Māori Party MPs did not support that the Minister for Māori Development appoints the Māori Land Court judges. So people out there will think that that is really strange and bizarre and why did the Māori Party and the Minister himself not support the fact that he should be the one as the Minister for Māori Development to appoint the Māori Land Court judges. I have got no idea why they did not think it was an important thing to do. What we do know and I would like to acknowledge my colleague Meka Whaitiri for highlighting the fact is that there are a lot of changes in the Māori Land Court and there are a lot of redundancies happening. I presume that for example that means that the Minister for Māori Development has had or will have no responsibilities in that area. Obviously the staff who are employed by the Māori Land Court are there to support the Māori Land Court judges. So it is just an incredibly curious thing for the Māori Party to vote against.One of the other areas that I was particularly passionate about was about the diversity and inclusion of the judiciary and the Law Commission in fact said to the Justice and Electoral Committee in its submission—and made it really clear—that it thought judges should be appointed based on gender cultural and ethnic diversity. It was really clear that having a representative judiciary was going to make access to justice a lot easier. So for the Law Commission having social awareness and sensitivities to diverse communities and tikanga Māori was a way of providing criteria that would enable the judiciary to reflect society.I think there are a lot of discussions happening at the moment about issues such as structural bias. The old-fashioned term is institutional racism and maybe one of the best ways to address institutional racism would actually be to ensure that the people who are making the decisions when people come before the courts actually have the social awareness and sensitivity to be able to understand some of the circumstances some of the life history of people coming before the courts to hopefully make it—if it is their first time and their first offence—the last time that the court has to deal with any issues. That particular Supplementary Order Paper was not supported by the Government but it also was not supported by New Zealand First so I do acknowledge that that my colleague Denis O'Rourke did not think that was a good strategy I suppose in making sure that there was diversity and inclusion within the judiciary.But I did highlight in the Committee stage debate that the police have committed to diversity and inclusion and actually have a fifty-fifty aspiration for women in the police force. Some would have thought that that was a lot harder to achieve but I think putting it on the table and continuing to have the discussion about it means that it is out there we have to think about it and we actually have to make an active decision about whether we support initiatives such as that. So I was really pleased to be able to put that to the House and in spite of it not going through I do know that judges now do receive tikanga Māori training for example which is reflective of the skill set that is required in the undertaking of their particular duties.I am not going to prolong the debate any longer. We are supporting this piece of legislation. I want to congratulate Minister Adams. She has had a few successes lately and I think she is incredibly diligent in the work that she does. I commend the bills to the House. Thank you."