O'Connor GregCORONERS (ACCESS TO BODY OF DEAD PERSON) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 25 October.GREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Once again it gives me pleasure to speak. This is one of those bills that when it is looked at in its entirety it makes sense—that when a death occurs all cultural sensitivity be applied—but I think it's very important that we understand just why this is not always such a straightforward process. Of course the main role of the coroner when there is a death and the main role of the involvement of the authorities—inevitably the police—is to ensure essentially that there has been no foul play to ensure that the coroner can be satisfied as to what the cause of death is. So of course if the death is in any way suspicious then it is extremely important that all those facts be established and of course what we don't want to do—can't afford to do—is lose any evidence if in fact the death is suspicious.That is where the conflict often arises because you have those representing authority—as I say normally the police—in the event that there is not a certificate as to cause of death. I can say that every police officer who attends one of these deaths—the wonderful news that a doctor will issue a certificate as to cause thus meaning that there is no longer a requirement for the involvement of police other than for logistics until the funeral director takes over. But in many cases that's not the case. The cause of death is unknown and it behoves the police in particular to ensure firstly that death has occurred. It may seem rather obvious in many cases but it is still necessary to get a certificate as to the cause of death and then of course to start the procedure of a police 47 which essentially goes through the circumstances of a death to report back to the coroner so the coroner with some confidence can actually make a determination of what the cause of death actually was.My own experience has been particularly where there's been a death where there's a lot of emotion involved family particularly a lot of whānau and of course the expectation and the inclination is to actually begin the process of grieving there and then. This is where actually we do get to the nub of this bill. I have to say over my years as a police officer we did get much better at this in recognising the cultural dimension and the absolute necessity to take into account the cultural requirements but as I say achieving that balance while at the same time ensuring that we can with authority know what actually caused that death.I give the example—just some cases I was involved in myself—of having been called to a case where a naked body was found in a river in the Wairarapa. It looked extremely suspicious looked like there could be no logical explanation for it until we were able to recreate what had actually happened which was that a gentleman and his two children were actually crossing a stream when they were hit by a flash flood and the force of the flood was such that it actually removed their clothing. So it was only through good investigation in that case that we were actually able to establish that there were no suspicious circumstances from what on the surface of it—in that case the family obviously were very keen to get quick access to the body and it was quite a disturbing event having to keep them away until we established that.So I won't go further other than to ensure that people do understand that while cultural sensitivity is an absolute necessity and as this bill says the purpose of the bill is to strengthen the Act's focus on cultural considerations amending section 26 of the Act to provide an explicit requirement that coroners must consider tikanga Māori with the expectations of other cultures and their spiritual beliefs when determining who can view touch or remain with or near a body—balancing that with the need to ensure that the death and true cause of death can be established unhindered and that vital evidence is not lost at the scene. So with that I commend this bill to the House.