Naylor Jono: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 23 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4669. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National):Well it certainly would be great if we did not need legislation like this but we are passing this legislation because it is very much needed within our society. For those people who would think that we do not need legislation like this I would say that they need to get out of the little bubble that perhaps they might live in and get into the real world because this is absolutely needed. So what we are going to do is talk about Part 2 of this bill because it is incredibly important. Essentially what is happening in Part 2 of this legislation is modernisation and getting these various Acts up to date to ensure that they cover what is required in a modern society.When I was at high school if you wanted to—not that I wanted to. But if somebody chose to harass somebody by taking an inappropriate photograph of them they probably would have needed to remember to take their camera with them then go down to the shop and get the photo developed and then actually print it off and send it around to get multiple copies and photocopies. It would have probably taken at least 5 days to get a turn-round on it. Things were not so flash in the 1980s; it took a little bit of time for things to happen. So we do need to modernise these Acts to ensure that we are covering what is going on because the effects of cyber-bullying in particular are absolutely just devastating particularly for young people within our society.If you look at some of the research that has been done on this there was a report done by Victoria University which I am sure has been talked about as we have gone through this bill. Professor Vanessa Green who was the head of Victoria University’s school of education psychology and pedagogy along with a team of postgraduate students did some study and there was an interesting quote from her. I will read it out for you because I think it is pertinent to these particular parts in Part 2. She said: “The internet has made bullying a more complex issue than it was 20 years ago and as a result it requires a more sophisticated response. The old methods may not be as effective as they were. We need to be thinking in a more creative way about how to address bullying.” So that is why we do need to ensure that for example in these Acts—particularly say in the Harassment Act 1997—the insertion of the words “electronic communication” is in these because in 1997 which to most of us seems not that long ago clearly no one thought of using electronic communication as a form of harassment. So we need to insert those words there. We need to insert in the Human Rights Act from 1993 after the words “radio or television” the words “or other electronic communication” because this is so much a part of our society now.I just heard the previous speaker Jacinda Ardern getting perhaps a little bit distracted but nevertheless she talked about the fact that actually this is not the way for us to handle it but that in fact the way to deal with this kind of bullying is to get better education to do mediation and to get groups to do that. Actually that will be quite effective. In my time as a school guidance councillor that was incredibly effective in terms of getting peer groups in working with them and looking at those particular issues. But I think what we need to make sure that we understand is that this Act does not preclude those kinds of interventions from occurring. Simply because we are making it against the law to bully people online does not mean that we are saying that other forms of intervention are not possible.In looking at the functions and powers of the approved agency it has powers to investigate complaints. It has under clause 8(1)(c) the ability “to use advice negotiation mediation and persuasion (as appropriate) to resolve complaints:”. So that is contained within the law. It will be a part of the law that that agency will be empowered to use all of those interventions that are available in the tool box but what we are making sure that we are doing is not necessarily elevating everything—which is the only option at the moment—to a full-blown sort of legal process through the District Court or otherwise. I think that it is important that we continue to move forward on this. It is important as I say—coming back to Part 2—that these particular Acts the Privacy Act—[Bell rung]