Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): It's an absolute—well here we are we're debating a bill. Look I guess there is a range of different questions and considerations that one could turn their mind to when we start to talk about the punitive implications of raising sentences without taking an overarching holistic approach to sentencing and doing it in isolation through ad hoc bills and in this instance here we are with the Psychoactive Substances (Increasing Penalty for Supply and Distribution) Amendment Bill.Section 70(3)(a) in clause 4 is amended to replace 2 years" with "8 years" the intention of that being to get tough on the guys that are out there supplying some of the most vulnerable people within our communities. So I guess I want to start my remarks by saying that this isn't an issue we take lightly. I want to acknowledge the harm that psychoactive substances are having within our communities and in particular where you and I are both from we know because we see it day in and day out the harm that psychoactive substances are causing within our communities. So the issue for debate and discussion from this side of the House isn't about the harm that is caused as a consequence of the psychoactive substances circulating within our communities but the issue is the way in which we go about mitigating that harm.So in my name this evening I've tabled Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 162 that proposes: "[Replacing] clause 4 … with 4 Section 70 [to be] amended (Offences relating to psychoactive substances that is a not approved product) [and] In section 70(3) [to] replace paragraph (a) with: (a) in the case of an individual—(i) to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 8 years; and (ii) when sentencing under subparagraph (i) where relevant the court must take into account—(A) kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face reconciliation between the offender and any affected person):".As I alluded to prior in communities like ours the victims and the perpetrators—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I'm sorry. Can I just interrupt the member. Is she speaking to an SOP?KIRITAPU ALLAN: Number 162 that has been tabled and which I—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Yes. No no you haven't actually released it.KIRITAPU ALLAN: It's on the Table and I just took it off the Table.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): That's right. You haven't released it.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Well—it's been tabled because the Clerk tabled it. And that's—I've been waiting for it to be tabled which is why I'm speaking to it Madam Chair.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Is it on the Table? It's on the Table? It's in order. Thank you.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Thank you Madam Chair. So in communities like ours in the East Coast and in Te Tai Rāwhiti offenders and victims aren't mutually exclusive—in fact more often than not they are intimately known to each other. The proposal at subparagraph "(A) [is that] kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face reconciliation between the offender and any affected person):" is taken into consideration by the court in the sentencing process. At subparagraph (B) the proposal is at sentencing to take into consideration "whakamā (appreciation and shame in respect of [the] wrongdoing and its impact)" on the community.Now I've just been reading sentencing notes from the District Courts in our region and look there's been a real array of approaches to the way that individuals who have been charged with a criminal offence under this provision have responded in terms of their own remorse and recognition of the harm that they are inflicting on the community.So the underpinning thesis here is that where a person understands the nature of that harm they take it upon themselves they understand that whakamā not only to themselves but to their family and the community—that that is taken into consideration at that sentencing stage.At subparagraph (C) "whakahoki mauri (rehabilition):"—whether that person has engaged in any process to rehabilitate themselves as a consequence. It could be (a) in respect to the direct offending or (b) in respect of the circumstances that led them to that point in their life where they were—again as I said I alluded to that I'd been reading—[Time expired]"