Dean Jacqui: Evidence Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: Evidence Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 09 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11870. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thanks to the member David Parker who previously spoke on the admissibility of hearsay evidence which is one of the matters contained in the bill. He is quite right; there are some changes around that but this bill contains a number of other measures and those measures continue with this Government’s focus on putting victims at the heart and the centre of our justice system. I acknowledge the member who also noted this: that along with a focus on the victim we are also making improvements to efficiency and the accessibility to our justice system because access to justice is one of the strong tenets of New Zealand’s justice system.It is pleasing to see not only that the Justice and Electoral Committee worked very cooperatively on this bill in particular but that the Justice and Electoral Committee is a committee that works with a focus on the issues at hand. We tend to traverse and make our way through those issues where we disagree and try to find a way that we can present back to the House a bill that reflects what is good in the intention of the bill at hand. In this case it is the Evidence Amendment Bill.The select committee did make a few changes to the bill. Really just a minor change or minor in terms of the debate is the change to the commencement date which will allow time for regulations to be made before the bill comes into force. It is a topic of some argument amongst select committees these days around how many regulations there should be or whether really they should be in the primary legislation. It is my view that sometimes regulations are best dealt with and we get a better result if they are dealt with after the legislation has been passed. I believe this is one of those examples.We also recommended a number of technical changes to clarify definitions and phrases to provide some consistency not only within the Evidence Amendment Bill but also between this bill and other Acts. What we are also coming up against is terminology. In some pieces of legislation a person under the age of 16 is a child; in other pieces of legislation a person under 16 is referred to as a person or by some other term. That clarity in legislation is very important.This bill will give child witnesses the right to a support person while giving evidence. That is a change. It will not have to be done on application to the court; it will be a presumption that a child will get a support person when giving evidence and also presumptive will be the ability to have alternate ways of giving evidence. The reason for that is very simple. The reason for that is well accepted and well supported around the House and I do not think we would find a single person in New Zealand who could disagree with the premise that these measures will go a long way towards helping reduce anxiety and helping reduce stress on children. It will enable them to give better testimony and enable them to be better witnesses. I think that if we get not only a better result for the child witness but also a better result coming out of the court then this is a good measure on every level.We are also placing restrictions on video record evidence—tightening up on who can see the video evidence and to whom it is available—and a notice requirement around evidence of previous sexual history. Once again this is a measure that puts on notice that if previous sexual history is to be raised in the court then that is done with some warning to the witness.The bill will also allow more previous consistent statements to be admissible in court and that is to enable a more complete story for the jury. I think the previous speaker spoke at length around this issue. It is one point in quite a comprehensive bill. We do have further readings; I do have more to contribute but I commend the bill to the House.