Power Simon: Sentencing (Offences Against Children) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Power Simon: Sentencing (Offences Against Children) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:671] 
Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Sentencing (Offences Against Children) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 We are all haunted by the names of children who have died at the hands of those who were supposed to treasure and nurture them. We cannot stand by and simply brush it off as something that happens to somebody else’s kids. They are all our responsibility. This Parliament must send a message that such acts are obscene. In August 2007 I made a commitment that if elected to Government I would revise the Sentencing Act as it relates to violent crimes against children and ensure that the age of the victim should be more than just an aggravating factor at sentencing. I can advise the House that officials are already working to bring sentences for crimes against children into line with penalties for crimes against adults. This process will result in legislation being put forward when the House returns next year. 
The Sentencing Act already lists aggravating and mitigating factors that can be taken into account when sentencing. Some of these factors will apply to offending that involves violence or neglect of a child. For instance one aggravating factor covered in section 9 of the Act concerns offending against a victim who is particularly vulnerable by reason of age or health. That could cover offending against a child but it also covers a range of other victims and scenarios—quite rightly—including the elderly and those who suffer from a form of impairment. That is how it should be and the bill currently before the House does not change any of the existing provisions. 
This bill provides a new section 9A that deals specifically with offending against children that involves violence or neglect. It actually lists factors that the court must take into account when sentencing for this type of offending in addition to those factors already set out in section 9. All the new factors are designed to make the sentence more severe than would otherwise be the case because they all reflect the fact that offending against children should involve a high degree of blameworthiness and sentencing needs to reflect that. 
The first of the new factors that the new section obliges the court to take into account is the defencelessness of children. Unlike adults children cannot physically protect themselves against an adult assailant or permanently escape the offender. It is the cowardly bullying of a captive and weaker victim that justifies a harsher response from the State. The second factor requires the court to consider the serious or long-term harm that can result from offending against children. A childhood marked by violence or neglect can have profound effects on the individual and society and that individual can even repeat the cycle of offending as a parent thereby perpetuating the misery that this type of offending breeds. 
A crucial aspect of being a child that can be taken for granted is the special relationship of trust that children are entitled to enjoy with adults who are responsible for their care. Children do not choose their parents or caregivers and for the first years of their lives are utterly reliant on their care. This bill puts that trust to the forefront by requiring the court to take the magnitude of the breach of trust into account when sentencing. 
Finally the new provision requires the court to take into account any threats made to the victim that are designed to prevent him or her from reporting to the authorities or any attempts made to conceal the offending from the authorities. There are instances where social workers may have experienced the sudden disappearance of children from a house when they came to it or the sight of children clothed from head to toe on hot days so that bruising will not show. The sort of behaviour that results in these situations must be denounced and this bill will take a step towards ensuring that. 
This bill represents the first step in the Government’s response to offending against children that involves violence or neglect. As I stated at the beginning of this speech we will go further next year by introducing a bill that tackles the issue of setting maximum penalties for offending against children. In the meantime this Government thinks it is important to get this legislation into force before the Christmas break when so many children are especially vulnerable to abuse stressful households and neglect. 
I do not pretend nor advocate that these measures are anything more than just a part of the solution. The Government will continue to work with social policy agencies to prevent child abuse and mitigate the harm it causes and we will continue to look for new responses. There also needs to be a response from the criminal justice system in terms of denouncing such abhorrent behaviour. 
I understand that all parties in the House are supportive of this legislation and I want to thank in advance—unless I am proven wrong—all members for their support. When a New Zealand child aged between 1 and 6 years is 8.4 times more likely to die from an assault than a child in Sweden and a child under 7 is almost 4 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault I am reminded of the words spoken in a different context that strongly emphasise the fierce urgency of now. I commend this bill to the House.