Bishop Chris: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 03 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1121. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National):Well that was an interesting contribution from Sue Moroney. You would not have thought that it was actually the National Party that took to the election a programme to expand paid parental leave and expand the parental tax credit. Actually that is the policy of the National Government and that is the policy we will be advancing. But anyway I want to mention two things in my contribution tonight. It is a great pleasure to be here actually. This is the first actual bill I have had the pleasure of speaking on as a new member of this Parliament. I have given a speech in the general debate and obviously I have had my maiden speech but this is the first bill I have spoken on. It is a shame I have to say that I was not privileged enough to be a member of the Law and Order Committee which considered this bill. But I have carefully read the information. I have carefully read the bill and I have carefully read the report back from the select committee and I have considered the submissions. I think it is pretty clear that there are really three reasons why the bill is not going to be passed tonight—unanimously I think—by the House.There was concern about the definition of “in the presence of”. It was felt that that would be difficult to apply and I think that is fair enough. There was also concern expressed by many that the proposition being put forward by the member’s bill was indeed actually already the law. So in some ways the bill was essentially redundant. Case law already took account of the presence of minors in criminal offending. There was also some concern I think that this would restrict judicial discretion. So for those three reasons I think the bill rightly is not going to be passed tonight. I do not think that anyone would dispute that the member who originally brought the bill forward who I understand was the long lamented Brian Donnelly and his successor Asenati Lole-Taylor were very well intentioned in bringing this issue to the attention of the House.I want to take a broader look at this bill and the issues. I want to talk about the achievements of the National-led Government in the law and order and crime and punishment fields. The interesting thing about what the Government has been up to over the last 6 years is that there has been a quiet revolution going on in crime and punishment. The National Government has been cracking down on crime—there is no doubt about that—but the other thing we have been doing as a Government is actually putting enormous effort and investment into tackling the causes of crime and tackling reoffending and that has been led firstly by Judith Collins and then latterly by Anne Tolley. I am sure that Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga will continue with it as the new Minister of Corrections. I would describe it as a quiet revolution in that field and I think that when people look back on the legacy of this National-led Government they will look very favourably on the very large increase in things like drug and alcohol treatment and addiction treatment. It is true—and these are the facts for the benefit of the House—that under the National-led Government we have the lowest crime rate in 35 years. It is indisputable.Carmel Sepuloni: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just want to raise with you the issue that you raised with the previous speaker Sue Moroney in saying that her speech was out of the scope of this bill. I just think looking at this particular member of the National Party that his speech has very little to do with this bill and I would like you to consider that.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I take the member’s point of order. I ask members to stick to the bill under discussion tonight which is in respect of children’s presence at criminal offending—the Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill. Obviously I previously allowed some leeway and we learnt a lot about the outer reaches of the Rangitīkei electorate. I do not believe that the current speaker is going beyond the scope at the moment but he must bear in mind the need to stick to the bill.CHRIS BISHOP: Understood. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. Look I think it is fair to say it has been a free-ranging debate and certainly I think that members opposite have taken some liberties as well with the subject matter of this bill. I do want to talk about the crime rate. We have put 600 more police on the front line and there has been a 155 percent increase in foot patrols by our police between 2011 and 2013. In my great area of the Hutt Valley I was very pleased to see crime down 23 percent between June 2011 and September 2013. Violent crime is down 21 percent youth crime is down 36 percent and reoffending is down 10 percent. The justice sector in Hutt Valley won an award from the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand for its efforts in working together as a justice system. That is a very impressive achievement and is great for the people of the Hutt Valley.Carmel Sepuloni: Well done Trevor.CHRIS BISHOP: Actually he had nothing to do with it. As the new list MP based in the region I am looking forward to working with the justice sector in the Hutt Valley to get those rates down further. Here are some more facts for the benefit of the House. In 2007 and 2008 when members opposite were in charge 234 prisoners had access to treatment for addictions. What was the figure in 2013-14? It was 3700. So this is a Government that has put a serious amount of effort energy and raw hard cash into making sure that our prisoners have access to treatment for addictions which of course so many of them do. What about qualifications? I know that the member Jacinda Ardern has a strong interest in making sure that our prisoners come out of prison equipped to go back into the workforce—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. It is pertinent to remind the member that it has been a long time since he has mentioned the protection of children in his speech. It would have been wise of him to take the steer earlier given. I welcome him back to the point under debate.CHRIS BISHOP: I think the relevance to children is pretty clear in that we want to make sure that prisoners who leave our prisons and often go back to looking after children do not reoffend. This is a Government that has put a serious investment into making sure that prisoners who have the ability to gain qualifications have the ability to educationally achieve. This is also a Government that has put a serious amount of effort through the Supporting Vulnerable Children Result Action Plan into making sure that children who are vulnerable in our society get the support they need and that we reduce the number of assaults on children. The trend is downward and it is very important that we continue on the path we have gone on through things like putting social workers in schools to deal with the root cause of some of the problems with crime in our society and the subjecting of children to the crimes that this bill very rightly aims to deal with.It is important that we continue with initiatives like social workers in hospitals which we introduced in 2009 to make sure that social workers are in every district health board around the country which I know my colleague the Hon Jonathan Coleman as the Minister of Health is very focused on. We are making sure that children in our schools have access to social workers and this Government has put more effort and energy into that. That is extremely important. We have expanded that programme to all decile 1 to 3 schools and I was privileged during the election campaign to meet some of those people in Wainuiōmata. They are indeed making a difference to the well-being of our young people.But to return to the core elements of this debate I think there is widespread unanimity across the House that for a variety of reasons this bill is not necessary and I think we can all agree that this is a Government that is taking serious action on some of the issues that are highlighted by this bill. So we will not be voting for it at its second reading.