Flavell Te Ururoa: Education (Trustee Ineligibility) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Education (Trustee Ineligibility) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:633;Page:5246] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tena tatou katoai tenei po. This Education (Trustee Ineligibility) Amendment Bill cuts to the heart of many fundamental principles in our society. Right up there is the right of every child to be free from sexual exploitation and abuse. The fact of even having this bill on the Order Paper highlights the shame of our nation that our babies our children are being raped and abused. It demonstrates the unthinkable that sexual offending with children is acceptable. 
We in the Maori Party are disappointed today that another bill has been withdrawn—a proposal that looked to follow the lead of the United Kingdom and Canada and introduce a Sex Offenders Registry Bill. Although we are aware of the dangers inherent in establishing such a registry—the risk of provoking vigilante activism and the possible obstacles that may impede rehabilitation—the principle is one still worthy of discussion. In addressing that principle we would do no better than to refer to the comments of Jane Foster National Director of End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes who said: “Our children deserve the best protection possible from child sex offenders. … The New Zealand public needs to know what concrete steps are taken to manage the risk offenders pose to children’s safety.” 
 These issues are deadly serious issues. They threaten the values that are at the core of our national identity. They disturb the myth of safety formerly associated with Aotearoa. Child sexual offending destroys the innocence of our tamariki it fragments families and it places communities at risk. The attainment of stability and well-being disintegrates through the actions of offenders who prey on our most vulnerable and it has lasting consequences for all of those concerned. 
For glaring evidence of that I refer the House to a paper written by Dr Miriam Saphira and Tainui/Maniapoto/Ngati Paretekawa woman Averil Herbert. The paper called  
Victimisation Among Those Involved in Underage Commercial Sexual 
Activity 
 reports on a study of the incidence of violence and childhood sexual abuse amongst those who go on to become involved in underage commercial sexual activity. Although it was a restricted report surveying only Northland Auckland and Waikato the results were profoundly disturbing. Fifty-nine percent of respondents disclosed child sexual abuse and for Maori the percentage was even higher. Seventy-four percent of Maori respondents disclosed child sexual abuse as opposed to 40 percent of Europeans and 60 percent of Pasifika. 
These are tragic statistics and although as always there are a whole range of factors in the analysis that one could wrap around this study—such as the results possibly indicating more about the willingness of Maori and Pacific respondents to disclose sensitive information at disproportionate rates—the fact remains that even one child offended against is a tragedy. It is a tragedy of lifelong proportions. The impact of sexual offending scars the soul wounds self-confidence and has lasting consequences on the well-being of individuals and their whanau. So the Maori Party comes to this Education (Trustee Ineligibility) Amendment Bill with much hope of addressing and reducing this appalling state of child exploitation and oppression. 
It is essential that the law protects children but other key principles are at play here that also bear discussion. There is the principle of natural justice. As I understand it in the case of this bill the Ministry of Education was not keen to pursue any amendment to the law. The ministry tended to favour the notion that communities would sort out offenders. I have read through the debate in the first reading of this bill and I do not share the same optimism that Lynne Pillay has in her belief that the nature of school elections makes it highly likely that sex offenders are identified by the community and the issue then resolved through community pressure. Do sex offenders look different from you or me? How would we know whether a sex offender was present in this House today? Could the membership of the Christian Heritage Party identify an offender in their midst? Clearly not! So I am not so convinced that the merits of natural justice should be considered in this debate. 
Other themes in the debate around natural justice have implied that as members of boards of trustees are not actually in a teaching role the issues are not so relevant. But as the School Trustees Association told the Education and Science Committee in some communities trustees are also coaches parent helpers or involved in school life in other ways. We also know that in small rural schools members of boards of trustees are more likely to have contact with students than is the case in larger schools. So the risk is still there and this bill does little to reduce that risk. Individuals disbarred by the legislation from becoming trustees would not be prevented from performing other roles associated with children. 
Yet another important debate to be had is that around the rehabilitation and restoration of offenders into the community. How do we care for our alienated and our ostracised? How do we reintegrate offenders into caring communities? These again are big issues that this bill does not address. 
So what does the bill do? The bill amends the Education Act 1989 to ensure that convicted child sex offenders may not be school trustees. As a member of the Education and Science Committee I agree with my fellow members of that committee that section 103 of the principal Act already imposes limits on who may become a school trustee. The Education Act 1989 ensures that persons convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2 years or more or who have been sentenced to imprisonment for any other offence are unable to be appointed as trustees. So the Maori Party endorses the advice in the select committee report that there are existing legislative measures to prevent convicted child sex offenders from becoming trustees. 
For the purpose of this debate the Maori Party will vote against this bill supporting the recommendation from the select committee that the bill not proceed. But we must not avoid the responsibility of tackling the crisis that the bill was intended to address. I am told that John F Kennedy would often make reference to the fact that when written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters—one representing danger and the other representing opportunity. I believe that this nation is well aware of the dangers inherent in the crisis of sexual offending against children but have we truly exhausted all of the options in trying to respond? 
This bill presents us with another opportunity to speak out about the safety of children. The select committee has concluded that existing legislation includes sufficient powers to address the inappropriate election appointment or co-option of a trustee and we are led to believe that the Education Act 1989 also provides the Ministry of Education with powers to intervene when the Minister believes the welfare of students to be at risk. These are all good reasons to justify doing nothing in relation to this bill but we must not do nothing about the children who are harmed by the crisis of sexual abuse. 
Tangata whenua too like the Chinese are always mindful of opportunities. One of our whakatauaki reminds us: “Ka whati te tai ka pao te torea.” which means literally: “When the tide ebbs the oystercatcher strikes.” So we must not sit by vote down this bill and waste an opportunity for this Parliament to pool its collective wisdom in addressing the crisis of sexual offending. If we are truly committed to preserving our tamariki as a natural treasure of this land we must do all we can to protect them from harm to promote safety and to aspire towards well-being. Let us take that opportunity to act. Kia ora tatou.