Goudie Sandra: Films Videos and Publications Classification  Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Films Videos and Publications Classification  Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18644] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I would like to acknowledge Marc Alexander’s contribution which was very emotionally sincere about supporting this bill. I am sure that that is the reason why we are all supporting this bill. However I was a little bit disappointed that on behalf of United Future he did not support the amendments that were put forward. It would have been nice to see that happen. 
Part 2 “Amendments to other Acts” deals with the exportation and importation of objectionable material. Section 2(1) in clause 37 defines “Electronic publication” as “a thing (including but not limited to a disc or an electronic or computer file) on which is recorded or stored information that by the use of a computer or other electronic device is capable of being reproduced or shown as 1 or more (or a combination of 1 or more) images representations signs statements or words”. I presume that a mobile phone comes into that context. I wondered whether perhaps the Minister could clarify that for me because he did not actually clarify the retrospectivity of Part 1. Maybe the Minister would like to include that in his explanation along with the— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Did the member say “retrospectivity”? 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Yes of clause 4B which I mentioned earlier. I am wondering whether the Minister could clarify whether a mobile phone comes into this. I would presume it does but perhaps the Minister would like to clarify that. 
It is interesting to consider electronic publications and to consider as Lindsay Tisch has done in his contribution the relationships and protocols we now have as outlined in clause 43 with regard to conventions overseas. We can expect that materials will come to New Zealand from overseas and it is interesting to see the number of people being charged in crack-downs in Australia. More than 200 people have been charged and another 500 individuals may yet end up in court in relation to 2000 child-porn offences following raids across Australia. 
Of course that is the sort of material that they will be exporting to New Zealand and we have people in New Zealand who are picking up on that type of material. It is sad to see that approximately 20 percent of those possessing that material or accessing that material are actually between 14 and 18 years-of-age. It is an absolute tragedy in my view that that is the case. A letter came from Parentline urgently requesting that some provision be made for counselling or treatment for those young people to ensure that they did not reoffend in accessing these images—and many of these images no doubt come from overseas. 
In another instance a gentleman accessing images was prosecuted. He had 106 images. It was interesting to note that of those 106 images 61 were found to be objectionable in that they featured children as young as 6 engaged in sexual acts or posing in a sexual manner. That was the case with 61 out of 106 pictures and it makes one wonder what the situation was with regard to the remaining 45. One would think that they would have been in the same context. That gentleman downloaded those pictures only for his own use. He did not pass them on to others. So his sentence took into account the fact that he was not a distributor. He just used them for his own purposes. It is good that we do have the arrangements outlined in clause 43 with regard to how we deal with overseas situations. 
It is to be hoped that we will not be in the same situation as Australia where the number of individuals being caught is exploding and more is to come. It just goes to show that we may be underestimating the number of people in New Zealand who also indulge in looking at pornographic images of children. Part 2 looks at prohibited imports and exports which is pretty straightforward and offences in relation to importation or exportation of prohibited goods. My colleague Lindsay Tisch expounded on that substantially and I am very pleased to see that we have strengthened the penalties for offences.