Yates Dianne: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Yates Dianne: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12716. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak in the third readings of the bills coming out of the Armed Forces Discipline Amendment Bill which are the Armed Forces Discipline Amendment Bill (No 2) the Court Martial Appeals Amendment Bill the Defence Amendment Bill (No 3) and the Court Martial Bill. I find it very interesting—although I agree with his final conclusion—that the argument of the previous speaker Dr Wayne Mapp was somewhat convoluted and not necessarily consistent with other arguments he has put forward in the past. But I am sure we will be able to use his speech many many times in the future. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Absolutely—I’m going to quote it tomorrow. 
DIANNE YATES 
: The Hon Lianne Dalziel says she will be able to use it tomorrow when discussing other pieces of legislation. In Dr Mapp’s speech process and the content seem to be equated as one and I am sure the logic will come back to haunt him. His speech was not necessarily consistent with previous speeches but it is said that consistency is the sign of an unthinking mind. 
I want to mention today that I recently attended an art exhibition in Hamilton. It was actually a book launch by a well-known artist who is also a playwright. His name is Campbell Smith. Campbell Smith wrote a play that was performed in Parliament in the room next door to this one called  
Soldier’s Song 
 which was about New Zealand soldiers executed in World War I by the British Army after a court martial supposedly for desertion. Through the efforts of Campbell Smith and my colleague Mark Peck in 2000 a pardon was obtained for these New Zealanders who lost their lives in a dreadful war. 
When thinking about this legislation it is fortunate to think that that circumstance will never ever happen again. In New Zealand we have our own armed forces discipline legislation which not only applies to New Zealand and is administered by New Zealand but has been reviewed. I thank the two people involved Brigadier Riordan and Commander Griggs—particularly Commander Griggs—for the tremendous amount of work that has gone into these bills. 
The previous speaker said that the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee worked hard. Commander Griggs has worked very hard and thoroughly over a number of years coming up with four pieces of legislation that are very profound and accurate. We have found only one mistake now that we are at this stage of the bills’ passage and that is where we referred to “accredited journalist”. I understand there is no such thing. I think probably “discredited journalist” might be more correct. But the error is in several pieces of legislation and the Minister has promised to look at those in the future in respect of the term “accredited journalist”. Evidently such a thing does not exist in New Zealand. Apart from that this bill has been a very thorough exercise in drafting legislation. I have been tremendously impressed by the work of those who have prepared the legislation and as I said worked very very carefully with the select committee. 
As has been said this amendment brings the legislation up to date. It is consistent with international developments particularly with movements in the UK and in other like-minded countries to ours. It makes the law consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 which has been quoted several times in the House today. It allows servicemen and servicewomen similar rights as those enjoyed by civilians and in so doing brings the legislation up to date. Also perhaps it makes the armed services more attractive employers in terms of the rights of people who work within them. 
We have noted that the legislation brings about a degree of cooperation between the three armed services that it has bound New Zealand to our own human rights standards and that it brings international human rights standards into the law. Also it has brought about a consistency of strategic environment in terms of fairness efficiency and simplicity in the justice system within the armed forces and it has standardised these issues. 
 The select committee did have changes to make—some amendments around timing around petitioning around delegation around promotion around hearing of appeals around bail around media access around the chaplains and about legal representations. So there were a number of amendments but those amendments were worked through very thoroughly with the committee staff and those who had drafted the bill and I think it has been a very successful exercise all round. 
In particular I want to thank those who made submissions on the bill. As has been said before in earlier readings in this House it is a bill where we are not going to get a lot of public involvement because it is very specialised legislation—it is legislation dealing with the armed forces. But there were several submissions from legal experts and we also had submissions from judges and those involved through this procedure. Those submissions were very good and very constructive. Ideas were taken on board by the select committee and I think members of all parties on the select committee worked together to come up with what we hope is very workable very successful and much more modern legislation. In many ways we look forward to seeing some cases brought before the law to see how the new legislation will actually work out and be implemented. We look forward to its successful use and implementation. 
Once again a big thank you to both Riordan and Griggs for the work that has been done. I said before in a debate on a previous bill that it is a pity we cannot put the names of people to bills when they have done so much work. Nevertheless those who have done all the work will have the personal satisfaction of seeing the legislation coming into force and knowing that it is part of the New Zealand law. 
As we have said the legislation is divided into four bills and we are now in the third reading process of those four bills. I thank everyone involved and look forward to the implementation and the signing by the Governor-General of the four pieces of legislation before us as a whole: the Court Martial Bill the Court Martial Appeals Amendment Bill the Defence Amendment Bill (No 3) and the Armed Forces Discipline Amendment Bill (No 2). I thank everybody once again for the work involved and the effort they have put into it and for the cross-party cooperation on this legislation.