Hayes JoMARRIAGE (COURT CONSENT TO MARRIAGE OF MINORS) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingJO HAYES (National): I move That the Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. This bill proposes changes to the Marriage Act 1955 and the Care of Children Act 2004. The subsequent changes mean that this bill's title will also change to the Minors (Court Consent to Relationships) Legislation Act. I needed to say that in the opening of the second reading of this bill.I'm very pleased to have this bill make it so far into the House—the second reading. I want to thank the Justice Committee for the rigorous analysis that was done on this bill and the submitters that came in and gave their views on this bill as well. The bill is quite narrow-focused because the bill that was developed authored by Dr Jackie Blue came about because of issues with migrant women being forced into a marriage by their parents. So therefore the bill started all the way back then around about 2013 whereby Dr Jackie Blue brought it to the House. She put it into the draw and I was fortunate enough to have it in my name just recently. I want to acknowledge the Hon Maggie Barry who also was a holder of this bill caring for it until such time as it was pulled out of the ballot.As I said the bill is quite narrow-focused. The reason that the title of the bill had to change was because during the deliberations within the select committee there was a big discussion around the inclusion of civil unions because we wanted to block off various areas where coercion of marriage could actually slip in. So civil unions were included in this bill. There was also a big discussion around de facto relationships and I must admit that I too almost overlooked the area around cultural marriage and how that was viewed as a de facto - type relationship. So therefore I was very pleased to get some advice and have a discussion with Priyanca Radhakrishnan from out of the committee over this. So and so that's why de facto relationships have been included and hence the changes to the two Acts. So some people may say—and even when the bill was drawn out I had phone calls saying—So that means my 16- and 17-year-olds can't get married?" That's not the guts of this bill. What it does—and I did say this—is that young people aged 16 to 17 if they wanted to be married once this bill becomes legislation that consent would have to come through a Family Court judge and that was the final way of actually blocking out a forced marriage or coercion to marriage. I want to make my contribution quite brief tonight because I know that there are others that also want to contribute their pieces to this bill. I want to acknowledge the women of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and I think that they have done a great job in actually supporting this bill and helping to shepherd this bill through. I'm really pleased that tonight we're starting a celebration of a bill that has—from my last discussions across the parties—cross-party support. I think Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians have done a great job in supporting this bill right through. There are lots of contributions that I look forward to hearing from tonight and most probably the next time we have this bill to carry on the second reading so it is without any further ado that I wholly support this bill to the House. Kia ora."