Street Maryan: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:15109. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): It does give me some pleasure to rise to speak to the Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill and I too congratulate the Minister of Justice on bringing it forward. I think there is a malaise abroad that the incident on Facebook with the young men and their behaviour has brought to everybody’s consciousness in New Zealand recently. The malaise can be addressed by law but only in part. There are a lot of other things that need to happen. The way we bring up our children the way we train people to be parents the kind of alertness there is in the classroom to abuse and violence and all of the kinds of social exchanges where children are present are moments that we should protect with more effort than we currently do in my view. We need to train our children to think differently and behave differently. This is especially difficult when the role models they have are no role models at all. But as far as are concerned in this House there is something we can do and it is in legislation. As I said it is only one part of the fix but I am pleased to support it. This is what we do here; we pass laws. This is one that deserves support and closer investigation.I have been reading the regulatory impact statement on this bill and one of the things that the officials have said in the regulatory impact statement is that “Child pornography offenders have particular characteristics that set them apart from other offenders. Child pornography offenders are almost universally male and their occupations vary widely. Offenders often distribute child pornography in order to access the collections of other offenders. … Due to the diverse nature of child pornography offenders it is not always possible to make useful comparisons. However the majority of offenders have no criminal history. Further most child pornography offenders plead guilty and readilyacknowledge their involvement with this material. These mitigating factors can result in a reduced sentence.” All of those things need to be taken into account when we are determining either the increase of punishment or the level of punishment that should apply.I worry all the time that every time Parliament tries to pass a piece of legislation that deals with modern technology the horse has bolted. In fact there is another horse that we have not even thought about that is just about ready to bolt. I hope that in the course of the debate in the Justice and Electoral Committee which I look forward to participating in we can canvass some of the issues and make this both as broad and as specific as it needs to be in order to address the harm that is trying to be addressed through the bill.One other point I wish to make is the business of the change in the Attorney-General’s function and seeking the Attorney-General’s permission to prosecute. Clearly that has been done in the past. In fact the Department of Internal Affairs the New Zealand Customs Service and the New Zealand Police who are accustomed to bringing prosecutions in this area have had to with the exception of the Customs Service seek the Attorney-General’s permission. What I understand from my first look at this legislation is that that is being altered to apply only to private prosecutions and if that is the case that is fine. Certainly there are safeguards that needed to be protected where there are private prosecutions being brought so that nobody can bring a vexatious frivolous or damaging prosecution without reason. But where agents of the State are bringing a prosecution then I think they have now developed enough expertise over time to be able to do that without the Attorney-General’s explicit permission. They have some internal checks and balances I think that allow them to make sure that they are not overreaching themselves in that respect either.I look forward as I have said to good thoughtful submissions on this bill. I am sure we will get others as well but I look forward to the good thoughtful ones. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.