Order! We'll start the clock again and I call the Hon Judith Collins.
It has been interesting to listen to
MsJan Logie's speech to the House,
very impassioned speech. I
congratulate her on. I
would like to say as a member of the executive,
which I understand she is, I
am surprised that this hasn't been
advanced as a Government bill paid
for by the taxpayer through the
budget process when it comes to
this entitlement to leave. I would have
thought that a Government who wanted
to support this bill would want to
say that this is something
that employers should not be meeting
the cost of, rather the
whole of New Zealand should because it would
be in the best interests of all
of New Zealand plus those who are clearly
the victims of family violence. The
National Party has a very
proud record in Government when it
comes to tackling the issue of family
violence.
to tackling the issue of family violence. In 2016
to tackling the issue of family
million package of reforms which overhauled the whole
family violence laws and the way in which the system
prevents and responds to
laws and the way in which the system prevents and responds to We
invested 32.7 million into targeted
family violence services including
the integrated safety response pilot and
the gang action plan pilot in 2017.
That ISR pilot has helped
over 24,000 people through the
development of
development of more than 8,000 family safety plans. I
don't believe that the current Government supports
any of that. The 2017
investment fund for mental
any of that. The 2017 investment
million to pilot a culturally responsive therapy
responsive therapy service for children aged five to
12 years that have experienced or been exposed to
operating funding over four years, including
operating funding over four years,
reprioritised funding to design and implement new
implement new sexual violence services and to develop and
support existing services. We took an
protect victims of family violence. We brought in a new
sexual violence helpline to provide nationally accessible information
and support to
people affected in any way bisexual harm. We establish
admin steeral group on
family violence and sexual
violence across 16 portfolios to oversee a
work programme aiming to
improve the current system and to
deliver better results for all those
affected bisexual violence. We improved
our investment in crisis support
services for victims
of sexual violence. MSD and ACC
worked together to ensure better
coverage across prevention,
across prevention, crisis response and
across prevention, crisis response
increased the penalty for breaching protection orders. We kept up to
1,000 victims of
family violence safe each year in their own homes by
funding and promoting the
national home safety Service. We provided
judges
judges access to information, family violence, by improving information
sharing regulations. Alongside
police and judiciary programmes have
been running
been running in poory rua, Christchurch,
Christchurch, Wellington and Northland to give judges making bail
decisions a family violence summary
report on the defendant's
family violence history. We brought in a
new disclosure scheme, the police
family violence information
disclosure scheme which
was created to make it easier for police to
release a person's violent criminal
past to a concerned partner
or friend. We did these things
in Government and we did not ask
employers to pay for that. We
asked the taxpayers to pay for it for
the betterment of New Zealand. What
this bill lacks is something which
shows that it wants to put all of the cost
of this onto to small
employers in particular. I am very pleased that
some very large employers can, in
fact, and do offer,
some very large employers can, in
leave for people who are the victims of family violence. That is
a good thing but most people in New
Zealand are not employed in big
business. Most people in New Zealand
are employed by small
businesses, many of whom have one, two or three staff
members. It is simply
not possible for many of these smaller businesses
to take up this obligation when, if
it is important, which we all agree,
should be met out of the general
funds of the consolidated
fund of the Government. The
member whose bill this is, is
a Government member. We have heard today her
Government wants to do. She is a member of the executive. If it is so
important to her and
her parties that she is today speaking for, she
important to her and her parties needs to have it as
a Government bill funded out of the budget, not
out of
bill funded out of the budget, not
Zealand Government, not out of the budget of mum and dad, who happen
to have a dairy. That is not fair to
them. That might, in fact,
mean that they might make some
hiring decisions that they would not make
otherwise. So we voted for this. It
is interesting to hear very rude and
irresponsible interjections from
the current Minister for Justice, Andrew
Little, a man who wants to let free
half these family
violence perpetrators because they happen at
the moment to be held on remand
after this party, along with the
Labour Party and New Zealand First,
voted to keep them in jail. He
doesn't want to have. That
he wants them out on the streets. Instead
of paying the cost of that,
he wants mum and dad dairy owners to pay
the cost of that, and that's not
fair. Small business owners should not be
meeting that cost upless they feel
able to do so. It is something which
is important for
Government. Mr Little might think it's
a fun thing to do to shout out all the way
through another member's serious
and considered contribution, but he is
the man who wants to let these
perpetrators of family violence out
on bail where they will be free
to continue their recidivist violence
offending against their spouses
and their family generally. He is the
Minister for Justice who wants
to do that. We in the National
Party will not support him in that, as we will
not support a further burden on
small business when the Government
books clearly show that it has
enough money to
help fund MsLogie's idea and they don't want to do it. I
think, too, if we come back
to our own
think, too, if we come back to our
violence bill, which is currently in the House right at the moment, and
it has been put on hold
by this Government. They took it
over from Amy Adams, the Hon Amy Adams,
as Minister for Justice, and it has
now languished there for this last year.
Instead, we have
this bill, which has been around for nine months, no
funding attached to it. Not a scrap
of Government funding
attached to it, and instead taking the cheap way
out of asking mum and dad business
owners to have to pay for it. That
is not the responsibility of
people in small business. It is great
if big employers can help fund, that
but actually, it is the
responsibility of a
Government before it is the responsibility of
small business owners. It
is simply not fair to add this burden yet
again to them. There
may well be many who are already bearing the
burden, but that is
their choice. That is their choice
as employers and it is their choice to be able
to make that. A
Government that wants to use a private
members bill to take on and to put on to small
employers the responsibilities
of the Government, that is not fair to
anybody and this Government should
not think that that is
a responsible way in which to act. There is no
doubt about it, this will add
cost and responsibilities to small
already asked by us to collect wages, to collect
student loan payments, to collect all
of the costs that we in
Government expect them to collect. It is
not fair to them. It is not fair
to the victims. It is actually a cop out by a
Government that has the
money and can't be
can't be bothered using it.
The Hon Andrew Little. It is a great pleasure to take a call in this, the
third reading of the
Domestic
and to congratulate the sponsor of the bill, Jan Logie, for
the incredible work that she has
done, not only on this bill, and indeed,
on the Government bill on domestic
violence but as the work she does as
under secretary for
justice on domestic violence. It is not
only, I think, a feather in the cap of this
Government but actually it