Kuriger Barbara; Belich Camilla; Meager JamesCHILD PROTECTION (CHILD SEX OFFENDER GOVERNMENT AGENCY REGISTRATION) (OVERSEAS TRAVEL REPORTING) AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments relating to overseas travel reportingCHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): Members the House is in committee for the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) (Overseas Travel Reporting) Amendment Bill. Members we now come to Part 1. This is the debate on clauses 4 and 5 Amendments relating to overseas travel reporting". The question is that Part 1 stand part.CAMILLA BELICH (Junior Whip—Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I seek leave for all provisions to be taken as one question.CHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is objection. Therefore I call on Part 1 to stand part.JAMES MEAGER (National—Rangitata): It's a real privilege to stand and speak on I think this term's very first committee of the whole House stage for a members' day so it's good that it's a good bill from a good man. As they say good things take time and I think this bill has taken its time to progress its way through the House to where we are now. I understand it was actually pulled out of the ballot probably back in early 2022—Mr O'Connor is in the chair and he could possibly correct me if that's incorrect. But it seems like it was drawn in 2022 and if we just go back to that very first reading of the bill and understand what it's actually about we see that fundamentally this bill is about one thing: it's about keeping children safe. In this particular bill we are looking at what requirements and what restrictions we as a public like to put in place for registered child sex offenders who have served their time in our prison system are subject to the registration system and are then as a right that they have are entitled to travel to some countries abroad; and when they do undertake this travel what restrictions and what rules and what requirements we can put in place as a Parliament on their movements on their activities in order to make sure that when they are undertaking these activities this travel they are keeping themselves safe and that we are also ensuring that the children in our country and around the world are also being kept safe.So that is what I understand is the purpose of this bill from Mr O'Connor and it essentially requires a couple of things. It requires these individuals to provide additional information to the authorities about the date they intend to travel out of New Zealand; the names of the country that they intend to travel to; and if they don't intend to return to New Zealand statements around that intention. That is what we're looking at in Part 1 and around clause 4.Then of course clause 5 actually incorporates Amendment Paper 175 from the Hon Erica Stanford who worked with Mr O'Connor through this process and there was an agreement reached to incorporate that Amendment Paper into this bill. That Amendment Paper is around sharing of information between agencies and disclosure of personal information. So I think at last point we were discussing this during the second reading stage the paper may have sat on the Table still but it is my understanding that that may have been withdrawn because it's been incorporated into the bill now.So I wanted to go back and actually look at some of the information the previous Justice Committee actually received during consideration of the bill. One of those was a piece of advice from police and it essentially gave the committee some advice as to what happens in other jurisdictions—because it's important that we are aligning ourselves with comparable jurisdictions around the world when we're looking at what restrictions and requirements we place on registered child sex offenders.So the committee won't be able to see this because it's in teeny tiny little font on half an A4 page but we were provided with a summary table around what happens in countries like Australia the United Kingdom Canada and New Zealand—and we're actually out of step with those countries on a lot of things.So for instance there is a requirement in Australia the United Kingdom and Canada for registered offenders to provide information on where they intend to travel. That existed in those other countries—didn't exist in New Zealand. Timing of notification prior to travel: in Australia in the UK and Canada actually it was about seven days—in New Zealand we were requiring it to be 48 hours. So part of what I think the member is intending on doing—from his experience and years working the police—is align some of our requirements of what we place on sex offenders when they are wanting to travel; align that with other countries so we make sure we're aligned those jurisdictions.The other thing that we're wanting to do is align it with our own domestic requirements because there are some requirements in law about what information is required by registered sex offenders when they travel nationally. They have to provide information about where they're staying what they intend on doing how long they're going to be away for and essentially what they intend to do. That is of course in order to protect and make sure that we keep children safe and make sure that we're aware of where these offenders are intending on going and what likely exposure they may have to previous victims or other vulnerable individuals who may well be subject to people who slip in their rehabilitation.So part of this bill is actually aligning those requirements to what we actually already require of domestic travel and it only makes sense that we do it for international travel as well. So I was actually quite surprised—and we mentioned this in the second reading and previous contributions—that we didn't already do this so this bill solves part of that problem.There are a few other things I'd like to talk to later on in the committee of the whole House stage but hopefully we'll look forward to some more contributions from other members as well.CHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): Members the time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. The House will resume in committee at 7.30.Sitting suspended from 5.59 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."