Naylor Jono: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionNaylor Jono: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]JONO NAYLOR (National):Well these opportunities for debate are incredibly valuable. They are valuable to the Opposition because they give it the opportunity to practise its unsubstantiated wild accusations and they give us on this side of the Chamber a very valuable opportunity to reflect objectively on the advancements and the achievements that we have been able to make over a period of time. So it is great for me to be able to objectively reflect and objectively reflect on the fact that we have now the lowest crime in New Zealand since 1978. We have been able to achieve this while staying tough on criminals because that is something that we have always wanted to do and something that our public want us to be is tough on the perpetrators of crime. But more important we have been continuing to work hard on putting the victims of crime at the centre of our policies at the centre of our thinking and ensuring that victims of crime are foremost in our mind when we are doing things. It is really really important that we do this and so we have been passing legislation to reflect this focus on victims.We have been working on the parole amendment legislation. The parole amendment legislation has served to reduce the number of unnecessary parole hearings that an offender has to have when they have little prospect of release. I know that some people will confuse this with being tough on the criminals but of course with the parole hearing what often has to happen is that victims have to be notified and they have to relive the process all over again. So by passing this parole amendment legislation we are indeed focusing on victims.We have been able to work on the objectionable publications and indecency legislation to increase the maximum penalties for child sexual abuse online. This is something that has been pervading society not just in New Zealand but right around the world for far too long and so this Government has been taking steps to ensure that children not just here but overseas are offered greater protection through this legislation by ensuring that we are getting tougher on people who are either downloading it or sourcing it—it is not just about storing in on your computer any more but accessing it alone. By our getting tougher on those people we are again supporting victims of this kind of behaviour.We are working on the Harmful Digital Communications Bill to tackle cyber-bullying. Again it is showing that this is a Government that is responding to the technological challenges of our time. It is a Government that is recognising that there are new ways that people are finding to victimise others and we are responding to it through things like the Harmful Digital Communications Bill and we hope to see some improvement in the way that that is affecting particularly young people in New Zealand but not just them through social media and other methods as well. We are progressing the Coroners Amendment Bill again to improve the timeliness and the efficiency of the coronial system to better support families. This is a Government that is caring about families. This is a Government that is focusing on victims and we have been working on this legislative programme that reflects that and is ensuring that New Zealand will be a better place.We are working on policies too that will also improve the outlook for people within this country. We have just heard from the Minister of Police about IT upgrades that have been occurring throughout the police in terms of the type of technology that they have available to them. That has meant extra hours that they can now spend on front-line police services which is what we want them to be doing not necessarily sitting back at the station filling in forms. Through these technological advances we have been able to create effectively 300 fulltime-equivalent extra policing hours. It is like employing 300 extra people just by being smarter just by being innovative and just by doing the right things and responding to what our country needs. We have been able to put 600 extra police on the front line. Our offending rates are also decreasing. I heard a previous speaker from the other side ask earlier what we were doing about offending rates and why we were concerned only about reoffending.Reports noted.