I
I call Mark Patterson.
I call Mark Patterson. Sorry, as I just organise myself here for this
bill, the Coroners (Access
to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill
bill, the Coroners (Access to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill. As
we have heard, this is to amend
section 26 of the Coroners Act, or
the 2006 Act. It is to take
section 26 of the Coroners Act, or the 2006 Act. It is to take into
account cultural
account cultural considerations within that particular piece of
legislation. I note this is response
in to the select committee
inquiry and I note the names
that were mentioned in
and I note the names that were mentioned in the previous speaker's,
Nuk Korako's, contribution, and he
did neglect to say that he was
the Chairman of that
committee that shepherded us through. So some
congratulations to you, Nuk,
for shepherding
congratulations to you, Nuk, for congratulations
congratulations to you, Nuk, for shepherding this importance piece of
legislation. It might not be the
shepherding this importance piece of
something that is on everyone's mind all the time, but for
those people who are bereaved, it
is hugely important, it is genuinely
significant, and I think it does
behove us to take this piece
of legislation and bring it
forward so that it does allow the opportunity
for comfort for those families
that do find themselves in
this situation, and we all do,
eventually, from time to
time. This allows us to take into
account ethnic considerations. We know that
New Zealand is a much
more ethnic
New Zealand is a much more multicultural society than what it
was 20 years ago, 10 years ago. I
think almost a
quarter of our population was born overseas. We
have people here from almost
every country of the world
have people here from almost every country of the world and
they are not
country of the world and they are
cultures. And the Indigenous people and the pakeha maybe not as
dominant as they were in previous times. That
needed to be taken into our
submission process. Social attitudes
have changed as well over time, and
I think that is
something that we need to take into account. But,
of course, I think
we're particularly focusing here on the spiritual
beliefs
focusing here on the spiritual beliefs of Maori and tikanga Maori
and tupapaku, I'm a slightly
unlikely champion
unlikely champion for Maori spirituality
unlikely champion for Maori
I've been around so much in my life
Shane Jones who are immersed in that culture they have certainly
imported on me how important it is
in the Maori culture to honour the body,
to not just allow it to head off, and
maybe just see
it before the funeral, or whatever, as we may do
in European culture. It is certainly
something in their spiritual
DNA that they wish to have a much more,
literally,
that they wish to have a much more,
this bill allows for not only viewing, touching and
remaining near the
viewing, touching and remaining near viewing,
the body. As we heard from Andrew Little's
contribution, there are 5,000
coroners' investigations. So this is not something that is rare at
coroners' investigations. So this is
I did not know that. It shows that this is something more
widespread in its importance than maybe at
first glance we would think this. This
bill does implement relations
recommendations of the select committee, there were
40 submissions, including the
Human Rights Commissioner, the Chief
advocates, and also individuals. There is one here I will read out
which signifies I think what
we are talking about. This is a lady of
husband, only 43 years old, went into the Coroner's
process and she said,
into the Coroner's process and she
cultural values are adhered to. Whanau are in a state of tapu, in a
place so dark, not being able
to even touch my
husband and wipe the dirt off his face was horrific.
Very disrespectful. I left that night and
could not go back because I
couldn't touch or clean him. My husband hated
that the emotion dripping off that quote and it just shows
how important that is and I
know even from my own recent experience
of a bereavement, having gone through
that, it is very therapeutic to be
able to inspect the body and use
that as part of the
grieving and dealing with that process. I can,
actually, empathise
actually, empathise with that sentiment
actually, empathise with that that
actually, empathise with that sentiment quite keenly.
So
So this looks to enshrine best practice. Of course, we know that
it doesn't
practice. Of course, we know that it
the coroners profession are working very hard to allow these
things to happen anyway. So we're sort of
enshrining best practice, as has
been said, but as that
last quote shows, that's not always the case.
It's not consistent
across all jurisdictions. So I think that this
will help to bring this into a
more formalised situation.
formalised situation. So without further ado, I think, on
behalf of New Zealand
First, we commend the Minister for
bringing this forward. We support the
bill and we look forward to the select
committee maybe looking at it
a little bit in time,
to make sure that it has enough
breadth within its scope. I think we don't want to
maybe narrow it down to just Maori
or Pasifika people, that all
people have access and even, maybe,
the Scottish Presbyterians amongst
us would get our time to grieve
as well, if we so wanted to
go down that path. It might not necessarily
be our cultural norm but we may
feel, in that moment,
that that's what we want to do and
hopefully that allows that, that we wouldn't
be precluded from doing
that either. So the select
committee will probably look
probably look around those parameters and how it can be
tidied up. But I think the
general principle is extremely sound. It
will make our society a better
place and
will make our society a better place and, and we commend this bill
place, and we commend this bill to the House. Just to be correct, the
question is that the motion be
the
question is that the motion be agreed to. I call Joanne
Hayes. Madam Speaker, thank you. I stand to
take a call on the Coroners (Access
to Body of Dead Person) Amendment
Bill. Speaker, just to
give you a bit of background, Madam Speaker,
I was on the select committee the
day that Metiria Turei came in and put
the inquiry onto the table of the
Maori
Maori Affairs select committee, where we