SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): Kia ora. Thank you Mr Speaker. I jumped the gun a bit but I'm very eager to stand and take a call on this for the National Party on the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill. I commend the Minister the Hon Kiritapu Allan for leading the way and shining the light on this. Members in the House will be aware that there's a number of us who've practised in this area. This was a specialist area of legal practice that I devoted most of my legal career to serving the Family Court and those persons who came before the Family Court and with a particular interest in advocating for our children.So what's being addressed in the House tonight is that our children are central to most of the proceedings that come before the Family Court. What is often overlooked is the impact on our children in the lack of timeliness with these proceedings being concluded. It's been mentioned in the House this evening and it's also part of the regulatory impact statement the average age for all Family Court application types—that's excluding dissolutions of relationships i.e. divorce as once upon a time it was known as—is currently 175 days. However for defended Care of Children Act substantive applications which makes up 69 percent of all active Care of Children Act applications before the court the average case takes 384 days to resolve in the Family Court. That's the average case. I've known cases that have taken more than five years. That is totally unacceptable. That unacceptability is because of the delays that occur associated with multi-tier multi-layered complexities and as I say unacceptabilities—part of that is dragging the system out. It's about keeping a check on that.It's been identified in the review that was undertaken by the working panel having released their report in May 2019 Te Korowai Ture ā-Whānau: The final report of the Independent Panel examining the 2014 family justice reforms identifying a range of issues. So this is just addressing with the appointment of Family Court Associates the tip of the iceberg really. There were 69 recommendations that came out of that panel report about law policy and practices that currently govern care of children matters and it's actually not good governance—some of the practices that have been happening. So it's been identified that this may be one way to alleviate the burden the pressures of lack of timeliness but also the burden of judges' workloads. I'd invite this Government to turn their mind to considering appointment of additional Family Court judges because the appointment of Family Court Associates is just addressing administrative burdens or overloads. This is a multi-tiered multi-complex issue that needs to be addressed.I've raised in the House before a number of years ago when there have been other bills coming before the House on Family Court matters that in the criminal jurisdiction which I also practised in we had duty solicitors who were appointed at the early stages and then after that that was to help navigate. So there's been mention of Kaiārahi being appointed Family Court Navigators. That's actually similar to what's happened in the previous district health boards with people who know the system well helping to navigate through it for those who don't know it so well.So I've previously also raised in the jurisdictions we have the duty solicitors that are there at a point of entry to enable the people who are seeking to access justice—whatever that means. Justice delayed is justice denied" is a term that I've used frequently in this House. Duty solicitors in the Criminal Court jurisdiction and in part Family Court Associates sort of help alleviate the pressures of administrative overloading with our judges. It doesn't actually address those people who are coming into the Family Court system who are trying to navigate how to access a Family Court lawyer through legal aid many of whom who haven't been eligible for legal aid. So I invite the Government again to consider and contemplate the benefit of a duty lawyer within the Family Court.There was a time when I would go from Criminal Court jurisdiction as a duty lawyer to Family Court jurisdiction representing my clients seeing persons who needed—because they were self-representing they weren't eligible for legal aid they didn't have lawyers for whatever reason because they didn't like their lawyers sometimes so we'd kick them for touch. But it was about having a lawyer there to help navigate with those initial proceedings before the court.It's been identified also that the Family Court Associates and it's of a 27-page piece of drafted legislation a bill of 95 clauses long with a new schedule to be introduced into one of the many Acts this is going to be addressing known as an omnibus bill—that this going to take a bit of time. The Minister has indicated in the House the preference of a four-month engagement with the public. I commend that because it is sufficient time for engagement. The reason that I commend that is that this has to focus on child-centric issues and the impact on our children for these Family Courts and the Family Court proceedings.So it was mentioned in the House this evening concern about the suitability of who may be appointed into this role. New section 7A under the bill specifically identifies that the person may be appointed as a Family Court Associate if that person has for at least seven years held a New Zealand practising certificate as a barrister or barrister and solicitor; and is by reason of their training experience and personality a suitable person to hold the office. So that draws on the fact of suitability based on experience notably within the Family Court notably working with clients in distress notably and more importantly with clients that are children. So I don't sit on the Justice Committee I've just spoken with the chief whip and I asked if I might be permitted to come and join in on these conversations partly because of the experience that I have of some 27 years as a Family Court lawyer working in this space.What is also identified coming out of the review panel's works is the multi-tier layer of this. So I've touched on the fact that there needs to be more Family Court judges. I've had conversations with very senior experienced Family Court judges who are coming to the end of their tenure. With them about to come to the end of it they take significant intellectual knowledge capacity and experience. With the introduction of new judges coming in we need to calibrate that more so we don't have a high end dispense dispersal departure of our very senior experienced judges but more on a continuum being appointed on a regular basis. I recall addressing this House on the Coroner's Amendment Bill just last year that's when I used the line "Justice delayed is justice denied" repeatedly because of the tardiness of the Government in appointing additional coroners. At the time there wasn't the full complement that was permissible under the law for coroners to be appointed. It was only a sub-appointment or partial appointment so it was incomplete in that.So I'm emphasising the importance that with the Family Court Associates coming in being appointed it's only going to alleviate part of the issue. The other issue of complexity of course is that our facilities are not adequately set up. We have Family Courts—there's minimal when we have Youth Court hearings that are happening having to go between whatever space is available. So the physical configurations of our courts are not suitable. So I'm going to zoom in now to the use of technology that this country was exposed to when we were masked up with COVID. But we were also exposed to the use of technology because it was a matter of necessity. This may well be a matter of necessity where proceedings can be—and it has through our audiovisual links—for bail applications with inmates who are detained out at the prisons once upon a time sometimes still occurring put into the police wagon transported in at quite considerable cost of time of expense of everything else and that was not efficient utilisation of practice time and facilities. So we have technology. So it's about how we move into that space more efficiently more effectively.So the bill itself in terms of Family Court Associate appointments is just dealing with one aspect of that. So there are 69 recommendations. I commend the Minister for advancing this through the House. It has the support across the House. I look forward to contributions if I'm permitted to sit in there at select committee because it's about keeping the lens and the focus on those most affected and I always come and speak on a Family Court issue or matters that are affecting our children—oversight of Oranga Tamariki. Our children often get overlooked. There's an oversight in a lack of how central they are and pivotal. We must make and adapt our proceedings around them. I commend this bill to the House."