Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm hoping that you'll just humour me for a moment as the Opposition spokesperson for sports and recreation when I congratulate Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand on a fantastic win in the America's Cup today. I want to acknowledge Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni in the Luna Rossa team. They have been outstanding competitors. They have been very welcome in this country. They have made it a great spectacle for us.We have a long proud history of involvement and competing in the America's Cup. Of course we go right back to Sir Peter Blake and the iconic red socks that are associated with the America's Cup. Well I have to say that blue socks would've been pretty cool as well. I just want to acknowledge and congratulate Emirates Team New Zealand on a great win for us as a country. I think that it's timely and we'll be celebrating as a nation right behind them. The celebrations I'm sure up in the Viaduct Basin are going to be huge tonight and around the country. Madam Speaker thank you for allowing me those comments.I just want to support the comments that were made by Nicole McKee because they were very relevant to this bill and they were points that I was going to make myself. I've got now an opportunity to reinforce them and it comes to the position that the Greens have taken on this bill. I don't know whether there's some confusion around what the bill is actually doing but they're talking about a breach of human rights as if this was retrospective in terms of a conviction and sentencing. This bill has got nothing to do with that. The person only becomes eligible to go on to the sex offenders register if they are convicted and sentenced. It means that they then go on to the sex offenders register. It's not an additional sentence. It's not an additional punishment. It's just quite simply that they now go on to the register.It's extremely important—Golriz Ghahraman: Was the Attorney-General wrong? Because the Attorney-General found the same thing.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well it's extremely important—and I'll explain why—that these people go on to the register. The point that Nicole McKee made is actually—we haven't spoken about it in the House but it's very very relevant. I'd just remind the Green Party member in the House that actually they go on the register not just to protect the victims—but of course the victims' rights should always be at the forefront of our minds especially in a situation like this because we're talking about children that are vulnerable and can't protect themselves. But actually it provides the offenders themselves some protection and I'll tell you why: because often many of these offenders are suffering and dealing with serious mental health issues. They've often got compulsive-type disorders. They don't always have full control over their offending.Actually to be on a register where they are being monitored and our agencies are monitoring can actually put a layer of protection around them and stop them from being put back into a position where they actually reoffend. Is that information important to be shared amongst agencies? Absolutely it is and you can just imagine if you had a serious recidivist sex offender or someone that was peddling in child pornography then actually if they were going to go into a Housing New Zealand house or they were going to go into a community where there were young children they should have that information and they should be able to manage and mitigate the risk around that.So I just think that the Green Party's position on this does puzzle me. It's not trampling over people's rights. The member refers to the report by the Attorney-General. In this House we're always going to have to grapple with at times the rights and protections of victims and also being able to reinforce and make sure that offenders' rights are observed as well but in this case the balance is absolutely right. We're actually responding to a Supreme Court ruling to say that we as a Parliament have to get this legislation tighter and we have to make sure that our intent is very clear in terms of what the courts are going to do when these people are convicted and sentenced. Thank you Madam Speaker.