Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): I'm very happy to stand and take a call on the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill. I just want to address very quickly the last comment that the last speaker Darroch Ball made around the consultation that was done. It has actually been very broad. I think that in principle all of those groups would actually agree that if we could see a mechanism put in place that is likely to prevent or stop miscarriages of justice inside our justice system that would be a good thing to do. The only concern I have is that the one group that's missing—and it seems to be a trend that is developing in the debates we have in this House around our criminal justice system—is victims and how this process is going to fit alongside them and what sort of voice they are going to have.One of the big concerns that I have with the legislation is the application of the Official Information Act (OIA) 1982 and the fact that the commission is going to be exempt from anyone being able to make an OIA application to actually get visibility on the communication that is happening between the commission and anyone that they're engaging with. I think that that is a poor step in the wrong direction in terms of having at least some transparency around how the commission is working and what they're doing. I think the reason why this is so important is that if you look at the proposed make-up of the commission you are going to have commissioners sitting on there—and of course they can range anywhere from three through to seven. If for example we did take the scenario where there are three commissioners appointed and one or two of those had no legal background then you've now got a commission with extraordinarily wide-ranging powers that are not subject to the OIA and they're going to be making decisions on cases inside our criminal justice system.These are important points. These are points that I want to raise. I would invite the members opposite to take a call on this and if I'm wrong point out to me where I'm going wrong and give us some confidence that we're not going to create a situation whereby we've got a commission with extraordinary powers that is making decisions on our judicial system with people who don't necessarily have a legal background or the proper training or background to be able to do that. At the same time the people of New Zealand are not going to be able to get visibility on what's actually happening because the commission is exempt from the Official Information Act. I think these are important questions that need to be answered. The fact of the matter is—and I'll come back again to the comments that were made by the New Zealand First member who spoke before I did—that if you're going to set up a commission like this and they're going to investigate possible miscarriages of justice which is very important you can almost guarantee that behind every crime there are victims and there are stakeholders and people who have an interest in it and they should be entitled to have a clear understanding of what is happening and what is going on inside of that review.The other thing that I am very worried about—and the Hon Dr Nick Smith raised it—is the thresholds involved. In my view this commission if it's established is going to be swamped very very quickly with a lot of applications from a lot of people who have been convicted of something and feel aggrieved and feel like there's been a miscarriage of justice. So I'd like someone to take a call on this and explain to us in this House how that process is going to work before we have a commission that is going to cost $2.3 million annually to run and is going to be so bogged down with its own workload that what's going to happen is it's actually going to slow down justice for everyone. It's going to create blockages in the system because part of it isn't going to be able to actually process and deal with cases that are brought to it to be reviewed. So I think that this is actually a really important critical part of the bill. Explain to us what the criteria are going to be. Is it going to be people who have faced minor charges under the Summary Offences Act? Is it going to be only for people who have been charged with serious offences with prison terms of two years or more under the Crimes Act? This is going to be critically important to how this commission is going to function.So these really are the two main issues that I wanted to raise in the House today. I would ask the next Government member that takes a call on this bill to just talk us through the issues that I've highlighted so that we could at least have some comfort and start working through this bill to see whether or not we land in a place where we think that it's actually going to add something and it's going to bring some added benefit to our criminal justice system and how we deal with miscarriages of justice. Although we've got one of the best criminal justice systems in the world—without a doubt—it is not perfect. Anything to do with human beings will never be perfect. There are going to be mistakes made without a doubt.But please someone take a call and address the issues that I've raised and show us clearly demonstrate clearly how the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill is actually going to make our criminal justice better safer and isn't actually going to clog it up and isn't actually going to create a body that (1) has not got the expertise in it to be able to start making these decisions and (2) why there's not going to be transparency around it—why they're not going to be subject to the Official Information Act. Thank you very much Mr Speaker.