McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand on behalf of the ACT Party in this the third reading of the Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill. I must say it has been a very interesting bill to work on. In saying that I'd like to take the time to acknowledge the work of my colleagues across the House from the Justice Committee the officials who worked hard on this bill Louisa Wall for her initiative in bringing it but most importantly the submitters—the 74 who gave us written submissions and the brave 22 that came in and gave us oral submissions. I acknowledge how hard it was for some of them to share the details of what is ultimately for them public humiliation.The purpose of this bill is to make it an offence to post an intimate visual recording without outright consent and it also allows for the courts to issue takedown notices. Usually a harmful digital communication is referred to as revenge porn. It involves intentional and often non-consensual disclosure of intimate visual recordings and then posting those intimate images online or sending them to others. The outcome for victims and families has been devastating on their mental health and at this stage I think it's important to acknowledge those victims who have considered or who have even successfully taken their own lives because of this harm. I acknowledge the families of the victims dealing with the fallout of harmful digital communications that they have experienced.Through the committee of the whole House stage there were a couple of Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) that ACT supported. We supported SOP 82 under Louisa Wall and we thought that this was important and we're glad that it went through. That actually changed the interpretation of a victim so that an individual receiving a harmful digital communication of another not just the victim themselves can be included. This was important when we heard of the story of a son receiving intimate visual communications of his mother from another man. This change allows for that son to be included as an individual that is also now a victim.I was however disappointed that we did not manage to get a successful agreement to support the Green Party's SOP 103 because that would have included legislating against the increasing rise of deepfake imagery. Deepfake imagery of course for those who are unaware is where you have an image of a person say their face put on to someone else's body and this is happening more and more. We believe that there was a need in this bill to have that SOP 103 put through identifying and recognising deepfake because of the rapidly changing technology. This technology can be just as harmful as real imagery. We thought that SOP 103 was relevant as it was futureproofing as well as acknowledging the increasing number of deepfakes that are occurring now. So we're disappointed that Labour did not have the foresight to see that as well.The safety of our community is paramount to the ACT Party. Women here are mostly the victims of harmful digital communications. But I think there'll be a change and we'll see our youth coming through also becoming victims as well as offenders. We heard that victims sometimes find out about intimate visual recordings from others and they often find that the recording has been downloaded and shared on multiple platforms often internationally. Some of the submitters had said to us that there was nowhere for them to go that there was nothing that they could do and that there was nowhere for them to get help. I hope that when this bill is enacted it will give them some recourse.I've got a bit of a concern as I just mentioned earlier a safety concern for our kids for the future. I'm not young but I'm not that old either. When I was growing up we didn't have cellphones as a teenager and I remember video cassette recorders coming in and getting really excited as a teenager. Teenagers nowadays have access to digital equipment that allows them to record and to post without care and mostly without supervision. They're also asking each other to share intimate images of each other and not having a care for what they are doing with those images or where those images go. I think it is the responsibility of us all to educate not only my generation that did not grow up with this technology but the next generation that could use it harmfully and not realise.The world is changing and it's changing quickly. Technology is advancing at speed and we need to constantly advance with it protecting our community our wāhine our tamariki from the pain that technology is capable of delivering. It is the responsibility not only of everyone in this Whare but also those out there in our community. ACT are pleased to contribute to enhancing community safety by supporting this bill.