Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to stand and take a call on this the District Court (District Court Judges) Amendment Bill. Can I just reiterate the support of our first speaker Chris Penk in saying that we will support this bill. I feel very strongly that this is a band-aid and I was very disappointed to see in the Budget that there wasn't more money allocated to the justice sector. In fact there was very little investment at all in the justice sector. I'd invite one of the Government members to stand and take a call to explain to us why there seems to be such a low priority when you see figures like a 25 percent increase in serious harm coming before the courts.Now I acknowledge that we actually made some changes in Government which I think are very good changes especially in terms of youth offenders aged 17 being treated throughout—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Back to the bill please Mr Mitchell.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I am actually referring to the fact that in the bill they refer to 17-year-olds and I wish to address that issue because that is legislation that we passed whilst in Government. I acknowledge the fact that now that 17-year-olds will be coming into the youth justice system there will be more pressure on the system. So I do support this bill. It goes a small way; not a long way. Like I said it's more of a band-aid but it goes a small way in terms of trying to relieve some of that pressure and help some of the pressure that will be coming into the court.But anecdotally we have got a big issue. Right now we've got front-line police officers who are dealing with youth that are being referred back into the youth justice system who are back out on the streets within five or six hours of actually being apprehended for serious offences. I had a very clear example given to me the other day: three youth offenders in a stolen car were pursued from the North Shore down to Ōtara on the wrong side of the road. They were arrested for serious offences; they were put into the youth justice system; they escaped and were back out on the street reoffending the next day creating more serious harm.So I want to see more investment. I said to the Minister—I was very clear with the Minister when we came into Opposition and I met with him—that we would support any good reform that is brought to this House that we can see is going to have a positive impact on us as a nation and our communities. We'll support that. I was very clear and said that we would not support the diluting of our parole laws sentencing laws or our bail laws. We don't believe it's right to transfer the risk back into the community.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Second warning Mr Mitchell. Back to the bill please.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Sadly we haven't seen that investment; we haven't seen those reforms in this Budget round. We've got this bill instead. We've got what I think is a very minor bill which is actually a band-aid that is trying to be applied here with the increase in some judges; that's good. Let's get some more judges into the system. Let's try and clear the backlog. I think that when you look at that number—a 25 percent increase in serious harm cases—it probably actually relates to the fact that they're getting clogged up in the court system.So in relation to that it's actually a good bill. It could go a lot further but that's the reason why we're supporting it. But I would appeal to the Minister—and maybe in the committee stage we could have more of a debate around this—there's got to be more investment. We have to see the plans. We have to see the reforms that were promised.Just very quickly the alcohol and other drug treatment courts: can someone please tell us—and be clear about this—are we retaining what's been an extremely successful pilot with our drug and alcohol courts? Is the funding remaining?Hon Andrew Little: Read the document page 115—all there.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Page 115—I'll go back and have a look at page 115.Hon David Parker: The answer's yes.Hon MARK MITCHELL: The answer's yes—we're retaining the alcohol and drug courts and they'll continue to be funded. The Attorney-General's confirmed that. That's great to hear—that's great to hear—because we certainly couldn't find that commitment. We would like to see that. If we were in Government we'd expand that. We'd be expanding that pilot—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): The Hon Mark Mitchell will resume his seat. I have warned you several times about relevance.