Henare Peeni: Electronic Monitoring of Offenders Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Electronic Monitoring of Offenders Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4228. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Can I take the opportunity to pick up on the words of my esteemed colleague the Hon Phil Goff in his mention of serious sexual assaults. I want to acknowledge our colleague Kelvin Davis in whose absence I stand and speak this evening. I want to acknowledge his efforts in this field and his hīkoi to the Far North.I rise to take a call on the first reading of the Electronic Monitoring of Offenders Legislation Bill and can I take the time to point out that Labour supports this bill. We support it going to the select committee where I hope for—and I will certainly be encouraging—robust debate on this bill to ensure that all people researchers advocates perpetrators and victims of crime find a voice on such an important topic to all New Zealanders. We hope that this bill after going through a robust democratic process will enable electronic monitoring conditions to be imposed on those who have served a sentence of imprisonment of 2 years or less and are being released into intensive supervision.It is the duty of a responsible Government to ensure the safety of all New Zealanders. It is with that in mind that I want to commend the Minister of Corrections the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. I want to commend the Minister and this bill. Can I pick up the point again of safety for all: safety for all New Zealanders must be paramount. Therefore a bill like this must consider the victim at the forefront of all discussions must consider the victim at the forefront of any rhetoric around such a bill. But it must also consider the perpetrator and I will pick up on that point again shortly.Naturally we all in this House want a system that is not only fair but also punishes crimes accordingly. New Zealanders can also expect to be safe as they go about their daily business. I asked myself when considering this bill what a safe system looks like. With the ever-growing and evolving technology in this world one’s mind only boggles when we consider the future. This is not the first time I have spoken on a particular bill in this House in my short time here just around the advances of technology and the impact that it has on crime and on victims moving forward. Therefore I ask what a safe system looks like. It is important that this country and all the authorities are well-equipped with the right technology. At this point can I highlight just how fast technology in this field changes.If you will indulge me Mr Assistant Speaker I have a short news article here. It is from Los Angeles and is only as old as last year 2014. It talks about this particular system being implemented over there. The report concedes widespread failures in the electronic monitoring of felons in which probation deputies were deluged with meaningless alerts while offenders were untracked for days and weeks at a time. This is now a big concern to me. Although we support this bill we want a robust system that will make sure that felons and perpetrators do not fall through the cracks of surveillance and in the meantime go unaccounted for. We can only imagine what they may get up to. I will talk about a body of research that was done that proves that this particular system deters further crime—but this is a concern to me when I think about the system that we are looking to implement or certainly to legislate through this House.The report goes on to say that they lost track of approximately 80 felons while they were on electronic monitoring in 2013 and 2014—80 felons. Although that may be only a drop in the bucket in California 80 felons are a heck of a lot of people here in New Zealand. This of course as I have already pointed out is a serious concern. However he also pointed out in this report the inadequate or non-existent training and policies. It is on this point I want to say to the Minister—and of course I will be encouraging debate on this as this bill progresses through the House—that technology is only one side of the equation. It is important that we have the manpower or the people power to ensure that the monitoring of felons or the monitoring of those who are under GPS monitoring is robust sound and timely. I say “timely” because there is quite a point that has been made this evening about how this GPS will allow pinpoint accuracy that is of benefit to those who are monitoring where the perpetrators or where those who are wearing the ankle bracelet might head to because they are zoned.According to this particular report they have had trouble with the zoning of these particular GPS systems because those who are let out under this type of surveillance or supervision model are still allowed to go out and about in their communities. We know that one of the purposes of this bill is to ensure that those people who are under such supervision or under such surveillance do not or are not tempted to recommit a crime by going back into the area. It reminds me of the old school adage that although we might pour all these fantastic things into a child we just cannot help what happens when they go home. I say that because it is all fair and well to say that we are going to GPS monitor these people and we are going to make sure that its pinpoint accuracy will allow victims to feel safer within their communities.Well as this particular report has highlighted there are flaws in this system. Why are there flaws? Because technology is constantly changing and these criminals are getting smarter. They are getting smarter. We know that there have been cases over the past decade since this type of monitoring has come into our country where some clever person has been able to tamper with their ankle bracelet and whether they escape the eyes of those supervising them for 1 hour or for 1 week that is simply not good enough. However it does go on in this particular report to talk about how although they acknowledge that the zoning of such GPS monitoring is a good thing it must also be unique to each offender. How you do that exactly I am not too sure but those are the challenges that we hope to flesh out as this debate and this bill progresses through the House. Therefore it is important that we get the system right to ensure that not only is the technology up to date—as I have already mentioned—but also that we have the people power to be able to resource it.In terms of the other intent of this bill I turn to the matter of rehabilitation. The Labour Party wants to see that proper measures that encourage rehabilitation and the reintegration of offenders back into our public life are a commitment made by this Government and to make sure—as I have already mentioned just like the child whom we pour all the stuff into at school who then goes home and we just do not have any control over what happens like outside the walls of a prison—that this Government makes a commitment to the proper reintegration of prisoners back into our communities.Jacqui Dean: We’ve already done that.PEENI HENARE: Although the member across might say they have already done that I invite her to come over to Ngā Whare Waatea Marae in my electorate where they are seriously underfunded in making sure that the prisoner reintegration models that are being proposed by this Government are carried through.There is indeed a body of research that supports that “sex offenders monitored by GPS”—it says here—“are found to commit fewer crimes”. If this is true—and the body of research certainly suggests that it is—then we on this side of the House will be supporting that. We think that is a great step forward and like I said if the research suggests it then that is fantastic. This report however does advise caution. It advises that there are limitations with the system and I hope that through the select committee we can address these issues. I do hope that this bill is part of a wider strategy from this Government in protecting all New Zealanders while also showing some commitment from this Government to the relevant programmes for the reintegration of prisoners. Tēnā koe.