Power Simon: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Power Simon: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
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Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Although I am the Minister in charge of the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) a colleague of mine actually moved the first reading motion and delivered the first speech in this debate. 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: I did. 
Hon SIMON POWER 
: I thank the Attorney-General very much. I have checked with the Clerk of the House and there is nothing in the Standing Orders to prevent me as I understand it from making a contribution at this point which I intend to do. 
This bill is an extremely important piece of legislation for a number of reasons. The first is that for too long this country has allowed the abuse and the killing of children to occur in an environment where a code of silence has been able to descend upon the households and wider families of those people who should have been responsible for the lives of those young children. My colleagues today have given some examples—in fact both sides of the House have—of where that has occurred. 
I am reluctant to give this piece of legislation a specific reference point a specific case that been through the courts or is yet to travel through the court process. The Hon Rick Barker on the other side of the House will agree with me that when a Minister of Justice holds that particular warrant it would be inappropriate for him or her to be discussing a case that is before the courts or a case that has been through the courts with reference in this way. 
We have to finally face up to the fact that a series of continuous tragedies is occurring in this country and is going unchecked by this Parliament. That is not a criticism of previous Governments or for that matter this Government quite obviously but it is saying that this Parliament now has an opportunity to say to the public of New Zealand that we have heard the message the public has been relaying to members of this House for many years now and that message is quite straightforward. The message is that we should stop sitting on our hands when it comes to children being abused mistreated and killed in households where families family members and regular attendees at those houses are not sticking their hands up and saying: “Something is not right here. I know what happened and I am going to take some responsibility and come forward.” 
We need legislation that gives a clear message to those people that they are not narks; they are people who are protecting those who most need their protection—young small and vulnerable members of our society who cannot speak for themselves. We know them only when the media portrays them and when their photographs are on the front pages of newspapers and leading television bulletins when it is too late after the fact. 
We sit in our cosy homes watching the faces of these children innocent children being beamed into our living rooms and we have somehow over a long period of time developed a legal system that has enabled people who were close to those incidents to remain silent. This bill says today that that travesty must stop. Responsibility will lie with those individuals and people who could have done something or said something for those who could not do anything or say anything and have died or been mistreated. 
I welcome the contributions of those members of the House who have agreed to support the referral of this matter to a select committee for various submissions to be heard. I have to say that as I get around the country and talk about the areas that have been reformed in the justice system—not just in the last 2½ years but over the last 4 to 5 years in particular—nothing gets a group of New Zealanders more engaged with those meetings than this issue. It is not a problem that we can regard as limited to particular communities or particular parts of our country. The truth is we do not treat our children as well as we should. We do not treat vulnerable members of society who cannot speak for themselves with the dignity they deserve. 
This bill may not change all of that but it will strip back the bizarre situation in respect of people who have been in sufficient proximity to a child but who are neither the parents and thus under a duty nor perpetrators of the offending nor parties in a legal sense. They must have a level of culpability in coming forward to describe to society and to inform society about what has occurred. We have made some other changes to the Crimes Act to address some of the broader sentencing issues and the necessities issues. But this model of turning one’s back on a child who has died or been maltreated and then the police and others in authority being unable to penetrate that code of silence in a way that sees justice left waiting has to stop. 
Members opposite ask why the bill is being sent to the Social Services Committee. Well there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that it is a child-centred bill. The second is that we want to get this thing moving as quickly as possible. Those are the two reasons why it will go to that committee. I do not doubt that members opposite who have contributed to this debate are any less genuine than other members in their appreciation of how serious this issue is. But I am disappointed when members say that Government Ministers myself included have not taken the issues of domestic violence and the treatment of women in violent relationships seriously. The truth is that that is just wrong. The introduction of public safety orders and the changes we are making to our criminal justice system are all sure signs. 
The sad part about it is that when members opposite talk about the Domestic Violence Reform Bill and about having only two-thirds of it advanced they are making cynical statements because that bill was introduced to the House by the last Government on 30 September 2008 and this House rose for the general election on 26 September. After the House rose for the general election that party introduced a bill to try to deal with these issues. So they should not come to this House and tell this Government we are inactive on this issue. We are taking action today and I look to the House to support those who need this support tonight.