Guy Nathan: Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Guy Nathan: Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7486] 
Hon NATHAN GUY (Associate Minister of Justice) 
on behalf of the  
Minister of Justice 
: I move  
That the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. This bill amends the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Act 1995 to expand police powers to collect DNA profiles. It recognises the value of DNA technology and empowers police to use the modern-day fingerprint to solve more crime. The bill implements the Government’s post-election action plan to require DNA testing for every person arrested for an imprisonable offence. I am proud to see another of National’s 100-day commitments being passed into law hopefully today. 
New Zealand’s pioneering DNA database which is only the second created in the world achieved its milestone 100000th entry last month. The foresight of police in carefully storing genetic information even before the technology was available to fully utilise it has paid off. Serious cases of rape abduction sexual assault home invasion arson and burglary—some of which have been cold for decades—have been solved only as a result of the availability of stored DNA material. However over 8000 of those 100000 profiles stored on the database relate to unsolved cases. 
In order to take full advantage of the DNA profile database as an effective weapon against crime and to help clear the backlog of unsolved cases it is important to increase the database’s size by adding more identified DNA profiles. This bill will facilitate the growth of the database and the resolution of unsolved crime by allowing police to collect DNA from anyone whom they intend to charge with an imprisonable offence without the need to obtain their consent or prior judicial approval. The bill will also expand the range of offences for which it is possible to collect DNA and remove the requirement that the police must wait for a conviction before matching a charged person’s DNA against samples taken from unsolved crime scenes. 
This bill has been enhanced by the contributions made by the Justice and Electoral Committee and I acknowledge the good work of that committee chaired by Chester Borrows in respect of the provisions relating to young people in particular. As a result of the committee’s input the range of offences for which it is possible to collect DNA from a young person will not be expanded to the same extent as for adults and greater consistency has been achieved with the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989. 
Members will be aware that in the select committee’s report to the House the Attorney-General as well as various submitters on the bill raised a concern under section 7 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act about the absence of prior judicial approval before a DNA sample is taken. Prior judicial approval was not included in the bill for a number of reasons. For example there are a number of measures in the bill to minimise its intrusion into individuals’ rights. Taking a DNA sample is a minimal physical intrusion and prior judicial approval does not add huge benefits to the process. Operational guidelines have been developed to avoid the arbitrary application of the power and requiring prior judicial approval for the estimated 16000 samples in the first year would come at a significant cost to the courts in processing that many applications. 
We recognise that immediate full implementation of these changes although optimal is not completely practical. Police will need time to develop guidelines and train staff. Phased implementation will also assist the Institute of Environmental Science and Research to absorb the increased workload. Accordingly the bill will be introduced in two stages. Initially police will be allowed to collect DNA from anyone whom they intend to charge with serious offences or offences that indicate a propensity for future serious offending such as peeping and peering. It is my intention that full implementation will be achieved in 2011. This Government has made public safety its top priority in the law and order portfolio. This bill will be a crucial tool in the fight against violent crime and I commend it to the House.