Bridges Simon: Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bridges Simon: Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:224. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 Happy Chinese New Year to you Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch and to the Hon Clayton Cosgrove who I have got to say was a lot more friendly in the Finance and Expenditure Committee today than he was in the House just now. But I have got to say this: I do agree with something he said when he said that— 
Kris Faafoi 
: What? 
SIMON BRIDGES 
: Well not much but it was something—when he said that police do a really tough job. I think he said he would not want to be a police officer. I tell you now I would not want to be a police officer either. We would have much higher crime probably in this country if I was.  
But the point is this: when they go out on the beat and they put the uniform on suddenly—and I learnt this in jury trials because not everyone thinks the way members in this House do where we think there is a strong respect for police and there is basically a regard for the way police handle situations; there is a small persistent minority in this country who despise them who hate them—and actually on a far too regular basis they are spat on and they are abused. We know and I am not going to go through the cases but we know of course that they are punched they are kicked they are stabbed and in a tragic but thankfully small number of cases they have been killed in this country.  
So this Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill—no it does not solve everything but it does recognise the important role that police play in this country. And I say to the members opposite yes I understand that in sentencing in this country there are aggravating and mitigating factors. There is a common law and judges can take into account things that have built up over the years—I understand that. But what this bill does do is it provides certainty it provides black and white for the judge on any given day in the District and High Courts in this country that they shall take into account as an aggravating factor offences against a police officer and that that will lift up the penalty that would otherwise be applied.  
The modern approach to sentencing in this country is the judge starts with a sentencing starting point whatever that is. Rape these days all things being equal—I think there may be new case law out but it has always been 8 years. Then the judges go by a list of aggravating factors. Some are common law if they decide to apply those but they must take into account the ones in section 9 in the Sentencing Act. Then they mitigate from that as well of course—the guilty plea remorse etc.; those sentences come down. But what this bill does as I say very much it puts in black and white for all judges in this country to see that offending against police is something that they must take into account and elevate the sentence because of that fact. I think that is a great thing. It is the right thing. Police deserve us to back them in that way. To some extent it is symbolic but I also think real as well. I also hope that by doing this there will be a deterrent effect so that trend towards more offending against police in recent years may be turned round.  
Of course this is not the only law and order bill we have passed in the last 2 or 3 years. We have had a really strong effort to toughen the law and the legal response to crime in this country. So I proudly support this bill.