Walters Vanushi; Salesa JennyVANUSHI WALTERS (Labour—Upper Harbour): Thank you Madam Speaker. In my first call on this bill I noted the data the extent of and the impact of child sex offending on children and the enduring effect it has through their lives. I think a number of speakers this evening have done that. I think the reason we've all referred to that data—that horrific data—is really to ensure that our law responds in terms of children who are suffering from sexual abuse but also those who haven't those who we are trying to protect from further acts of sexual violence. We need to ensure that we're managing the risk of further offending in this area.I do want to just speak to my Green Party colleagues from across the House as well whose kaupapa I have a lot of respect for in terms of their constant protection for human rights principles and what we are all committed to in our New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. I don't think we should easily sidestep that; I think we must address it. There was also some reference to the research in this space so in terms of research I did just want to acknowledge that my view is that there isn't sufficient research around sexual offender registries and how well they operate. I do think that further work needs to be done on that. However I was just recently reading a report from the Australian Government's institute of crime and they have what's called a trends report. In 2018 one of the statements that they made was: While the evidence is limited to … small number[s] of US studies non-public sex offender registries do appear to reduce [offending] by assisting law enforcement." But I do also take my colleague's point that Simeon Brown has made that that's not actually what we're here to debate tonight.I do also want to address the second point that my Green Party colleagues made in terms of the retrospectivity of the bill. The provision in the bill which refers to this is new clause 12 of Schedule 1 inserted by clause 5 that clarifies the Act's retrospective application overrides other laws to the extent that the other laws are inconsistent with the Act's—what I would say is a narrowly defined retrospective provision and that includes sections 6(1) and 20 of the Sentencing Act 2002 as well as sections 25(g) and 26(2) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. I just want to speak to the standards of criminal procedure elements in section 25(g) of the bill of rights Act which sets out for those accused and convicted "the right if convicted of an offence in respect of which the penalty has been varied between the commission of the offence and sentencing to the benefit of the lesser penalty". This is what my Green Party colleagues were referring to and this is essentially a provision whose theme is echoed in the sentencing provisions essentially arguing that a lesser penalty be applied.However section 5 of the bill of rights Act—and my Green Party colleague did acknowledge this as well—sets out the fact that rights and freedoms in the bill are subject to "reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." A few of my colleagues have spoken to what we should be turning our minds to as we think about what is demonstrably justified. In this case I do believe that there is a justifiable limitation given the extraordinarily horrific data—the facts the prevalence—that we're facing in terms of child sexual abuse in New Zealand but also the lifelong effect it has on these children. We've heard about how it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop with the conviction; it has ongoing effects for people.I think the other thing that's been spoken to and several people have referred to this is the limit on the right. So in this case we're not talking about an increase in the period of incarceration; we are talking about the provision of information so that police officers are able to appropriately monitor for a period of time. I do think that that is a reasonable limitation in this circumstance. I won't take up further time as I do hope this bill progresses smoothly through the House. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."