Fox Marama: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8144. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): I have listened intently both here and in my office to the debates that have raged about this bill. There is no question that many of the members who have spoken have offered good advice to the Minister of Justice. The Minister has listened to some of that and we are going to have a reduced period of time to review this legislation given that it is going through under urgency and given that we are rushing to put something in place that should have been put in place many years ago—in fact decades ago.I think that the purpose of this bill as widely discussed last night is narrow. In fact I am grateful that it is narrow and that actually we are going to deal with the justice aspect of this for parole and parole only. Some of the people who are returning to us have been treated poorly—that has been widely talked about. They have been treated harshly and in fact if the 6-month rule applies then for those people who have been in detention centres for 7 months 8 months and longer this need not apply to them unless they are seriously offending. Some people have talked about the DNA swabs and the fingerprinting which again applies only to those whom it would have applied to here in New Zealand under similar conditions for similar offences. So I am glad that there is a narrow scope.We have talked about the people of questionable character. I have no idea why they are being deported merely for associating. One of those people Kō Rūtene as we have highlighted in the past was picked up visiting someone in prison. Picked up visiting someone—if that is considered association then we should be warning all of our Kiwis now not to go visiting anybody in prison for fear that they will be deported. In fact my Facebook has been rife with instances and questions of people concerned about this legislation about what is going on over there and about whether or not coming home at Christmas time will see them stopped at the border and sent back. So I am glad that there is a narrow scope here.I am glad that the Minister does not have extraordinary powers and that the courts will be the adjudicators of whether or not somebody who comes back 6 months after being released from prison will then need to have these parole conditions placed on them. I would not like to see any of those people who have already been harshly treated come back and be harshly treated again.This is about the safety of our communities. For that purpose we are happy to support the bill but also because the Minister herself has made the attempts to come and discuss the issues that we have had with the proposed draft that we got to see and to make some small amendments here and there to ensure that it is as reasonable and fair as we are able to do.I take on board the points that the Opposition has made around the urgency and the time. If we were able to give it some consideration and at least go to the select committee stage maybe we could have crafted this and taken on board the opinions of those people in the community who do work in this space.I have been given assurances and have seen some of the work that has been going on with rehabilitation. It is something that as a party we have been very concerned about hence the reason why we have established things like Whare Ōranga Ake for the rehabilitation of offenders and to reduce recidivism. I want to support Metiria’s comments around that rehabilitation to ensure that these people coming back—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Can I just ask the member to refer properly to other members. Thank you.MARAMA FOX: —yes thank you—will be adequately supported not just through parole conditions but through rehabilitation and support services as we know that they are being alienated from their families.The People at Risk Solutions group which David Clendon has spoken about has been doing an amazing job and it needs to be commended for that job. We as a Government need to ensure that groups like it are also supported post putting this bill through. I want to assure communities that we have given it great consideration albeit in the condensed time. This is for the safety of our communities. Although we have been loud about those people coming back for minor offences we do recognise that there are also people caught up for major offences and that they will need our support our monitoring and our care. Therefore we support this bill. Thanks.