Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the family violence legislation. In order to look at the issue of family violence—but before I say that maybe I should comment on the fact that it's really heartening to see agreement across the House on these bills because these are incredibly important pieces of legislation for New Zealand's future. This Government has been loud and clear in its commitment to making New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child—and how important it is in a child's life to grow up free from violence.Probably the most damaging thing that we can see in our homes is that not only are children exposed to violence and abuse in our homes but they're also witnessing it. And as a former employee for the New Zealand Police the number of accounts of times when children hadn't been direct victims of family violence but they had witnessed family violence on an ongoing basis—and these are the sorts of things that create a next generation where there are issues that are really difficult to get to the bottom of and to address and to enable everyone in New Zealand to do the best they possibly can. So to have legislation that really goes to the heart of who we are as New Zealanders to try and give our kids the best possible start in life—it's great to see strong support from both sides of this House.One of the important things that this bill does is it really focuses on early intervention and that's what is probably the best way of getting to the heart of giving kids the best start. It's early intervention that enables police other services NGOs to get in right at that early stage to prevent ongoing instances happening. And so what we had in the past was a PSO the police safety order which enabled a member of the police to come at a point in time that was heated to ask the person who was typically the one accused of offending to vacate premises for 24 hours 48 hours for a period to cool off. Typically that is a male in the household and what has been happening in the past from front-line experience that I've heard is that typically that person goes down to the pub and they drink further and they cause further issues that the police then pick them up again for. So the underlying causes of that family violence aren't being addressed by simply telling someone to leave their home—in fact it can even make them more angry or not address underlying addiction anger or other mental health issues that might be contributing to that family violence.So what this bill does is it actually goes further and it requires police to order the offender to undergo a risk and needs assessment right at that first instance to see what else can be wrapped around that person to give them the most support possible for that family to start healing and to be working together in a better way than they have. And it also enables the victim at that point in time to go through a risk and needs assessment. So I think that's a huge improvement from the current situation. It enables NGOs and other services to be able to provide that sort of assessment that can look at why the offending is happening in the first place to try and stop that from being a repeat issue and to stop children from repeatedly being exposed to family violence instances within their own homes.The other key area that I'd like to speak about is the definition of family violence. Now this has been one that has perplexed people for a long time in terms of officials and different agencies: how we actually look at what family violence means and defining it. It includes coercive and controlling behaviour—so not straight out violence but looking at the behaviour of offenders to see what classifies as that. It's really important to recognise that people can be controlled through the restriction of finance of food of love of conversation and controlled through hurtful words. Those are all very much controlling and harmful behaviours that are working at the same time as violent acts and it is important that these pieces of legislation acknowledge that there is more to family violence than just straight out violent action.It's important to show that we are recording the statistics of family violence in a really clear way. So having those definitions enables the Government to better record what's happening in New Zealand homes. And some recent research that's been publicised by the Women's Refuge has shown the extent of how depression and high rates of self-harm and even suicide are very much prevalent in those people who are victims of ongoing family violence. So in order to make sure that we are on top of it as the Government understands what's happening in people's homes it's really important we record those statistics accurately to know where things are happening.Just as an interesting point it was only when on the first family violence form that was filled out by police when this was happening like eight or nine years ago now—for the first time people were asked about strangulation and it was very surprising how much that was happening. Previously we did not know how much strangulation as a violent act was happening within family violence occurrences. And so there is a new offence created that takes that even further a new offence of non-fatal strangulation and the evidence shows that it is a common tool of abusive and coercive behaviour. So adding that to the offences within this legislation assists police and other agencies to accurately respond to instances and to hold offenders accountable. But it is more important to say that it's great to see that we're having a coordinated response—that NGOs that police and that all agencies are working collaboratively together to make sure we do the best possible job to reduce all instances of family violence in New Zealand and I'm proud to see that this bill goes again. So I commend this bill to the House.