Parmar Parmjeet: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — Referral to Justice and Electoral Committee Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — Referral to Justice and Electoral Committee Second Reading[Sitting date: 24 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2552. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on the Harmful Digital Communications Bill’s second reading. Before I get into discussing this bill I want to reject the argument that was presented by the member who just resumed her seat Tracey Martin. It is very unfortunate that that member and her party New Zealand First are not supporting this bill. Also I heard from a member from that side that they are talking about prevention and saying that this bill is not about prevention but this bill is about both prevention and dealing with the crisis situation. The purpose of this bill is to deter prevent and mitigate the harm caused to people through forms of digital communication and to provide victims of harmful digital communication with an efficient and quick means of redress.Our work life and our social life in our current day and age are not the same as they used to be for my parents when I was little. I remember those days. It used to be about sending and receiving letters delivered by postmen. Phoning used to be from a landline to another landline. I still remember that we used to dial the same number many times to get through to that number after getting through to so many wrong numbers. So the best way was meeting face to face with people for work and the social part of life as well. For any urgent matters it used to be a telegram. That was the fastest way of communication when I was growing up. I grew up on air force bases—my dad was in the Indian air force—and I remember a personal telegram used to mean bad news. It used to mean that somebody in the extended family had passed away or there was someone who was seriously ill in the extended family. As soon as the news was out that there was a telegram received by a family on the air force campus other families around would gather and quickly rush to that family to see what needed to be done to support that family. This was without seeing the content of the telegram because it was assumed that telegrams were always bad news. So that was how that fastest way of communication was used.But then came the internet mobile phones and the digital technology that we are experiencing. This is not just limited to our work; it is in our social life in our personal life. I am a mother of two kids and I know that kids want access to the internet because they want to do homework. For homework they need the internet. They want access to mobile phones and other digital technology to stay in touch with their family members and their friends. This is by texting calling Facebook and a number of other social media trends that come in and out of relevance. Moreover the advancement of technology is such that day by day these things are becoming more and more affordable. So the question is about harmful digital communication and cyber-bullying.The Law Commission in its report in 2012 found that one in 10 New Zealanders has experienced harmful digital communication on the internet. There was a close relationship with age as the numbers doubled for those aged between 19 and 29. Our research also shows that one in five New Zealand high school children experience cyber-bullying or harassment. Bullying is not a new problem but cyber-bullying and harmful digital communication are definitely a newer problem. The National Government is setting various measures to stop bullying and minimise the impact of cyber-bullying on our people especially our young ones. Everyone actually old or young deserves to feel safe in their homes and communities. The devastating effect of cyber-bullying should not be underestimated. It is very disturbing especially for our young ones because it contributes to a lot of other problems such as increased truancy failure at school and many other social and emotional problems.But schools need new technology for teaching and learning purposes and to help students manage this rapidly changing social environment that comes with it. Cyber-bullying is an increasing concern for schools students and parents. It is time that cyber-bullying and harmful digital communication got this attention with the intent to update our legislation for digital communication so that digital harassment becomes part of our legislation and is covered by the relevant criminal law and so that there is a process that clarifies how to take up such complaints and enforce a regime that will stop harmful communication and provide protection to victims of harmful digital communication. This is also to futureproof our legislation to the extent we can see what is coming next. After the Law Commission’s work on harmful communications as part of its report on new media called The News Media meets ‘New Media’: Rights Responsibilities and Regulation in the Digital Age in 2013 the National Government announced a number of proposals to tackle cyber-bullying and those proposals are part of this bill.The bill along with other things will create a new civil enforcement regime that includes appointing an approved agency to receive and where appropriate investigate complaints. The agency will be able to investigate and resolve complaints and this will be done directly and quickly but more serious kinds of complaints will be referred to the District Court. The bill is also to provide a legislative mechanism for people to easily and quickly request the removal of harmful content that is put on websites or on to some online sites. It makes it an offence to send harmful messages and post harmful material online. For example where it is grossly offensive indecent obscene or knowingly false this will be punishable by up to 2 years of imprisonment. This is about sending that strong message that cyber-bullying or harmful digital communication is not acceptable.This bill is to amend the Harassment Act the Privacy Act and the Human Rights Act to ensure they are up to date for digital communication as some of our legislation was written before this digital time. We believe that when it comes to digital communication we need to have good legal options to take up such complaints and to deal with them. People may be hesitant to lay their complaint with the police and the police may not have the mechanisms in place to investigate and prosecute such cases. In some situations victims might not know who is sending these messages because it is very easy nowadays to hide phone numbers or contact numbers and people may not know who is responsible for posting things online as well. In these situations complainants can ask the approved agency to investigate. The agency could pass on a request for removal modification or correction of the harmful communication to an internet service provider or other appropriate internet entities like Facebook Twitter or Google.The next question that I would like to address is what happens with people’s right to freedom of speech. Section 14 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees the right to freedom of expression. However it is not an absolute right and freedom of speech does not automatically undo offences and protections set out in other laws. So therefore these new proposals in this bill are consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. This bill is to address and tackle the growing problem of cyber-bullying and it covers all aspects actually. It covers all aspects thoroughly by amending related legislation.Finally I want to say that I am not on the Justice and Electoral Committee but recently I had the opportunity to be subbed on to it. That gave me a very good opportunity to get some insight into the work that is being done by that committee. It is a great privilege to be able to speak on this bill that is assigned to the Justice and Electoral Committee. I support this bill and commend it to the House. Thank you.