McLellan TraceyDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a brief call on this Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) Amendment Bill. I want to start by also echoing my thanks to the Minister of Police not just for her work on this particular bill that we have before us but for her work in this House in general and her dedication to this sector in her previous work.The Government I think is characterised by its unwavering concern for the welfare of all New Zealanders but particularly our vulnerable and even more specifically our tamariki our children. In 2019 we released the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy which outlined the vision for Aotearoa New Zealand to be the best place in the world for children and young people and that strategy has established pathways towards this end including an action plan to address family and sexual violence a programme to prevent online child sexual exploitation and abuse and means to improve access to sexual violence services such as kaupapa Māori and crisis support services. We've also introduced various pieces of legislation to ensure that we are the best place in the world for children and young people. I think it's noteworthy as our investigative and our evidence-gathering techniques improve and people feel probably more increasingly confident in coming forward with allegations of sexual offending—or actually perhaps there's just been requisite time passed where people have the requisite strength to face that circumstance or various other family circumstances have changed. It's understandable that there'll be a commensurate increase in historical child sex abuse convictions.Again let's remind ourselves this legal vagary in the principal Act means that individuals who committed offences prior to the commencement of the Act but who were convicted and sentenced after the date could be omitted from the register. Also this legal vagary—as we've heard it described on several occasions today—saw that the Supreme Court in a split 3:2 decision simply found that the legislation and wording as it currently is was unclear. Essentially we're here now to seek to correct that and to re-establish what was the original intent.The passage of this bill is a matter of urgency in that the longer individuals are not subject to registration requirements the more difficult it will be for police to locate and monitor and for police to do that job of protecting the community. I also want to echo several of the sentiments and the points that have been made tonight about this not being punitive per se; about it being a tool; and about the intent here not to be adding additional unnecessary stressors but to have that monitoring sort of function not just for the police but for offenders who know that their rehabilitation and their continuous effort and their continued effort to not reoffend is supported in some sort of way. So this relatively simple piece of amending legislation clarifies the principal Act with retrospective application and ensures that those convicted of these child sex offences are eligible for registration. It is yet another example of this Government's firm fair and flexible handling of criminal matters. We are getting the balance right between justice the victims appropriate consequences for criminal offences and keeping tamariki whānau and the wider community safe. So in that context I'm satisfied that this amending legislation is important and necessary and I commend this bill to the House.