Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm glad that the justice Minister is still in the House—but no he's getting up and leaving. I don't blame him. SPEAKER: Order! The member knows that is out of order. He will stand withdraw and apologise. Hon MARK MITCHELL: I withdraw and apologise. I want to present an inconvenient truth in response to the comments that were made in the constant chipping of our deputy leader during her general debate speech— Marja Lubeck: Shocking speech. Hon MARK MITCHELL: —by the Minister of Justice. It's shocking; I'll come back to you in a minute. So I want to address—sorry Mr Speaker. I want to address the fact that he said that the deputy leader of the National Party had exploited members these young women in the Labour Party. Let me give him an inconvenient truth. The reality of it is why they sought her help why they sought her support—and I'm proud of the way that she has dealt with them. I'm proud of the way that she has remained completely focused on their welfare and advancing their needs. The reason why she arrived there for support is because you didn't look after her. SPEAKER: Order! Hon MARK MITCHELL: The Labour Party did not look after them. The Labour Party failed them in every measure. That's why they arrived with the support of our deputy leader. Like I said I'm proud of the way that she has supported them and that they've advanced this important matter.I want to come to the Minister of Justice and I want to go back to 26 June 2018 last year when in this House I stood him on his feet and I asked him: does he think trivialising serious indecent assaults as merely a pinch on the bottom will encourage members of Parliament who know about other sexual assaults not to take them seriously or report them? We didn't get one apology from that Minister; we didn't get one apology from the Labour Party. The Greens—it was deafening the silence coming from them. I'm talking about a case where a female corrections officer was indecently assaulted by a male prisoner. He didn't pinch her on the bottom; he grabbed her. He grabbed her forcefully with a full hand between the legs—enough that in her victim impact statement the prison officer said that she felt angry frustrated and totally degraded and felt vulnerable and uneasy at work. The reason why I knew that this was going to—I could see that this was coming. I could see this was coming do you know why? Because there's a major cultural failure inside the Labour Party. The reason why I say that is because you've got the most senior member you've got the Minister of Justice who was leader of the Labour Party standing in this House and trivialising an indecent assault on a female corrections officer. That's the message that's sent by this party. That's the message that was sent to the young men in this party: that an indecent assault can be tolerated it can be trivialised—[Interruption] They're all arguing and fighting it. What you should do is you should just stand up and apologise. SPEAKER: Third warning and final.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Sorry Mr Speaker. Someone from the Labour Party—the Prime Minister especially should be in this House standing and explaining to the country why under her watch why under her leadership she has allowed a culture to fester and get to the point where we have a Labour camp with indecent assaults where we have young women that have been indecently assaulted that actually haven't been looked after. They haven't been protected. They've ended up coming to us. They've ended up coming to the deputy leader of the National Party for support and to advance their issues. The reality of it is when you have the most senior male member of a political party stand in this House and trivialise an indecent assault against a female in the workplace and say that there are more serious offences—the reality of it is this: the message that is sent to every young man in the Labour Party or actually every young person in New Zealand is that one of the most powerful figures in our criminal justice system is saying that an indecent assault on a female is OK; that it can be tolerated. Kieran McAnulty: What a load of rubbish. What a shameful comment. Hon MARK MITCHELL: Mr McAnulty says this is a shameful speech. Let me quote the Minister for him—let me quote the Minister—The action which the charge related to was pinching a prison officer's bottom. Now that is a world of difference from other actions that result in a charge of indecent assault—that are genuinely more offensive".I'd like one member of the Labour Party to stand up—the noisy member at the back there stand up—and defend a comment like that because it sent a very clear message and as a result we're dealing with the fallout of it today in this House."