Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): One thousand two hundred and sixty video files and 1890 photographs of child pornography were stored on the computer of the offender whose case the Supreme Court considered which is the reason why we are debating this bill in the House tonight. As a mother of two small children I'm so proud that our Minister of Police has acted quickly and efficiently and has worked in a cross-parliamentary process to address what has been an error in drafting here which has caused a major problem—one that does not affect many people but affects the lives of a few families so deeply and I commend the Minister's work in this area.One thousand two hundred and sixty video files and 1890 photographs of child pornography is something that all of us in this House should take extremely seriously. I'm disappointed to hear from some colleagues in this House that they would consider what we think is a small and a muted approach to the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act to be a violation which wouldn't deal with these offenders to whom this bill applies.We're talking about a small window in time: between the time this amendment was enacted to the time when it took effect where there were a small number of offenders who were charged and for whom the court ordered their registration on a register—which as my colleague the member for Whangarei has noted is not a public register—and for their details to be notified to police and whether the bill applied to them. Now this bill that the Minister of Police has introduced would fix up this issue and would make sensible in-roads into making it mandatory for those people who were charged within that small window of time to register and to give police their details.We on this side of the House think that that would be justified in this context and it's absolutely needed to provide police with the tools that they need to crack down on this kind of offending which we all agree is egregious and we must allow our police to make in-roads into this. I just want to clarify for the members opposite who would not support this bill what registration actually does. It requires the offender once charged and once ordered by the court to provide personal information to police for the purposes of police monitoring their conduct within the community. It is not a public register. It is not something which is available to their neighbours. It is simply a tool for police to enforce the conditions which offenders have been asked to adhere to. Once a registration order has been made the registerable offender is required to report that relevant personal information to police and the relevant provision in the Act is section 16(1). I'd like to give some more context to that section. It says that for the purposes of the Act the relevant personal information to be reported by a registerable offender consists of the following information: (a) his or her name together with any other name by which he or she is or has previously been known: (b) in respect of each name other than his or her current name the period during which he or she was known by that other name: (c) his or her date of birth: (d) the address of each of the premises at which he or she generally resides or if he or she does not generally reside at any particular premises the name of each of the localities in which he or she can generally be found:". It also requires the registration of "(e) the name sex and date of birth of each child who generally resides in the same household as that in which the offender generally resides: (f) in respect of each child who generally resides in the same household as that in which the offender generally resides the name of the principal caregiver:". It's information in that vein which is absolutely vital to ensuring that police have the tools they need to protect our communities.I don't want to stress this point but as a mum of two young kids it's so important to me personally and so many other people in my situation that police are provided with that information which is so necessary in terms of doing their work. I want to know that police have that information available to them and are able to use that in a way that protects the communities they are bound to serve.For this provision not to apply to some people simply because there was a drafting error—so that it didn't apply in that small window of time—would be wrong and I think it is on all parliamentarians here to make sure that this bill can correct that today."