Tolley Anne: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6634. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): I move That the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services Committee to consider the bill. This bill will enable the establishment of a child sex offender register through the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Act. Child sexual abuse is a serious problem in New Zealand. It causes significant and long-lasting harm to children in our community and to their families. In 2014 alone 451 offenders were convicted of a child sex offence and of those 307 were sentenced to imprisonment. Also in 2014 294 child sex offenders were released from prison back into the community. The majority of these offenders will have no ongoing contact with justice-sector agencies after they complete their sentence or orders even though their risk of reoffending may be high.This Government has gone a long way already towards addressing the risks presented by high-risk sexual and violent offenders with the introduction of public protection orders and the enhancement of extended supervision orders in 2014. The Government is currently working on addressing the risks around overseas offenders who are deported back to New Zealand of which child sex offenders are a subset. The establishment of a child sex offender register will further enhance the safety of our children by ensuring that the appropriate agencies have the information that they need about registered child sex offenders who are living in the community particularly when they are no longer subject to oversight by the Department of Corrections.The bill will enable Police and Corrections to establish a child sex offender register for offenders aged 18 years or older who are convicted of a qualifying offence against a child under the age of 16 years and who are sentenced to a term of imprisonment or a non-custodial sentence and are directed to be registered at the discretion of the sentencing judge or who are convicted of an offence overseas that is equivalent to a qualifying offence in New Zealand. The bill applies to persons convicted after the Act comes into force. It also applies retrospectively to those serving a sentence of imprisonment including when they are on parole or release conditions or are subject to an extended supervision order for a qualifying offence on the date the Act comes into force.The bill imposes reporting requirements on registered offenders. They must report to police and provide a range of personal information within 72 hours of their release from prison their being made subject to a registration order at the direction of a judge or on their arrival in New Zealand. This information includes any aliases all the addresses at which they may reside their workplaces club memberships car registrations any distinguishing marks email addresses details of computer internet service providers used and passport details. They must report annually to confirm their information and to provide a photograph and fingerprints if required. Finally they must report within 72 hours of any changes to their personal information and at least 48 hours prior to any travel either within New Zealand or overseas.Duration on the register for offenders is based on the class of the qualifying offence contained in the schedule to the bill and the sentence received. If a registered offender is sentenced to imprisonment they will remain on the register for life for a class 1 offence 15 years for a class 2 offence and 8 years for a class 3 offence. If a registered offender is sentenced to a non-custodial sentence they will be registered for a period of 8 years regardless of the class of qualifying offence committed. This reflects the lesser non-custodial penalty imposed by the judge. The bill establishes offences for failing to report or provide the required information with a penalty of imprisonment for up to 1 year and a fine of $2000 and a penalty of imprisonment for up to 2 years and a fine of up to $4000 for providing false or misleading information.The bill has provisions for information sharing between specified agencies—Police Corrections the Ministry of Social Development and Housing New Zealand Corporation—and between Police Corrections and a third party when it is deemed necessary in order to protect a child or children at risk; for example to a parent of a child or children who has a new partner who is a registered child sex offender that will be the Commissioner of Police and agencies administering corresponding registers overseas such as Australia and the UK. Information in the register will not be publicly available. This is to ensure that we have one complete register of all offenders including those who have name suppression. Outside of information sharing among specified agencies there is limited provision for information to be disclosed to third parties. In situations where there is reasonable grounds to believe that a registered offender poses a threat to the safety of any children information in the register may be provided to a parent guardian teacher or caregiver of the child but it will be an offence for anyone to make any unauthorised disclosure of information in the register with a penalty of 6 months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $25000.I note that the Attorney-General has tabled a report on this bill pursuant to section 7 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. The Attorney-General’s report has concluded that the bill is inconsistent with section 9 of the Act and section 26(2) and that this cannot be justified under section 5. Respectfully I have slightly different views on those. The inconsistency with section 9 is based principally on there being no possibility for a review at least of the lifetime reporting obligations of those who have been sentenced to imprisonment for a class 1 offence. This was an issue that was considered at length during the policy development stage and the difficulty is how any reviewing authority can conclude that a fit and healthy person on the register who has committed a class 1 offence has ceased to be a risk to children. A reasonably long period of apparent non-offending will not necessarily mean that the risk of reoffending is sufficiently reduced to justify removing the person from the register.There are no restrictions placed on where an individual can live or work whom they can live or associate with or when and where they can travel including overseas. They are obligedonly to report any changes in these circumstances. The bill is based on the premise that the rights of the child justify the imposition of obligations on these registered offenders and that there is a rational and proportionate connection between the objectives of the legislation and the means used to achieve them. The inconsistency with section 26(2) “double jeopardy” is based on the retrospective application of the bill to those serving a sentence of imprisonment or who are subject to an extended supervision order for a qualifying offence when the bill comes into force. The limited retrospective nature is considered necessary in order to remove the not inconsiderable immediate risk presented by already sentenced child sex offenders moving into the community after the Act comes into force and not being subject to the bill’s reporting requirements. There are likely to be about 470 offenders to whom these provisions will initially apply. The section 7 report acknowledges that the retrospective provisions would help with addressing the risk but it considers them to be more than is reasonably necessary. As stated above I do not consider these reporting obligations to be excessive when balanced against the rights of children.In summary we know that child sex offending is a significant problem in New Zealand and that the harm caused to our children is substantial and long term. We also know that the monitoring of child sex offenders in the community is limited by the current legislation which does not allow for the collection and sharing of information about child sex offenders in the community by relevant agencies. The Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill provides a strong statutory basis for addressing these issues and for enhancing the sexual safety of the most vulnerable members of the community: our children. I commend this bill to the House.