O'Connor GregCHILD PROTECTION (CHILD SEX OFFENDER GOVERNMENT AGENCY REGISTRATION) (OVERSEAS TRAVEL REPORTING) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I move That the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) (Overseas Travel Reporting) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.If you just indulge me Madam Speaker—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes the member's been rather busy.GREG O'CONNOR: This requires the same versatility and dexterity that my appearance on the rugby field in Gisborne did this last weekend—and hopefully more successful.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'll just ask the Clerk to make sure that the clock is set for 10 minutes when the speaker starts. Thank you.GREG O'CONNOR: That will be to the relief of my colleagues on this side Madam Speaker.The Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) (Overseas Travel Reporting) Amendment Bill is now entering its third reading and if it actually does pass today it will be the first member's bill to have passed in the current Parliament. I think that's significant because it's a bill that has had quite a considerable journey through the last Parliament and this Parliament. It has been considered by two Justice Committees led by Vanushi Walters and James Meager. So because the subject of the bill child sex offenders and protecting our children against them is a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of not only all members but all New Zealanders I think it's highly appropriate that it has had the agreement of virtually the whole House through all its readings. So it gives me great pleasure to be standing here today to be reading on what I hope is the passing of this bill.Now when we speak of child sex offenders I was a detective for many years in the New Zealand Police and dealt with a large number of offenders. But there was a class of offender that I dealt with—particularly in my latter years when I actually established child abuse teams in Masterton and in Porirua where I really had my eyes open to a whole different world of offending. Now it's been apparent to me that as this bill has made its way through the House sometimes you don't realise how much you know because of your previous experience. But what became apparent to me is that when I was dealing with members on all sides of the House and in fact any conversations I had people when they speak about child sex offenders are often thinking of the man in the park the horn-rimmed glasses guy who hovers or the man in the blue van who is the stranger that we warn our children against.But that's not where the danger is because of most of the cases—and I reflect on the cases I dealt with and most police officers do—almost invariably the offender and the victim are known to each other or certainly the offender is known to the victim's family. So when we look at the protections required for our children in particular it's important to note that. So this bill sits on top of a bill which was passed in 2015 which ensures that those who are placed on the register—and shortly I'll go through the qualifying criteria—have a special form of protection for potential victims but also for themselves because of the unique nature of their offending.I just wanted to speak about dealing with these offenders also. They are often seen and even portrayed sometimes in the media as predatory well-planned people with a vast network that they're dealing with. Again that's not the case. These people are often solitary. While we often see cases where they will join together through electronic and through making sure they access the type of material that we don't want them to actually when it comes to the offending often it is very much lone offending. Interviewing these people they're pretty pathetic sort of individuals themselves. And so when I say they need the protection when they do go to prison they have a very hard time in prison. Some would say rightfully so but certainly it's not somewhere where they want to go back to.And these offenders actually have a relatively low recidivism rate compared to other offenders again for two reasons: one often they're older when they're found and the offending will be historical; secondly they will actually have had programmes when they went through prison and are relatively well monitored. And so it means we've been relatively successful in ensuring that these people don't continue their predatory activities and we are able to protect our children in that regard.So when this bill was brought in originally what it ensures is that when these offenders do go to visit family if they're going to leave once they're on this child register if they do go to visit elsewhere—they want to go to Napier for the weekend; they want to go to Dunedin for the weekend—they are obliged to tell the police to tell their case officer where they're going to be going where they're going to be staying and importantly any children that are going to be at that address. This is not only giving that protection to the children that will be at the address but also ensuring that they know that we know which is again is one of those big protections.However what becomes apparent is that those same protections are not made available to those who are living overseas. Earlier this year I was in the Cook Islands and I outlined to the Cook Islands Parliament this piece of legislation as an example of a member's bill. And there was considerable interest because they know there that many of these offenders do go back to visit family in places like the Cook Islands places like the Islands—whether it be Queensland Victoria. So while we're well aware of the offending that goes on in places like in the golden triangle" up in Asia—and that is another class of offending—this really is designed to protect our children or grandchildren or children in general who are likely to be visited by these people.I'm informed by police that there's about 20-odd individuals who do travel to Australia who travel internationally who are on this register each year. Now these are not the very serious offenders because the very serious offenders are actually usually still under probation. They're still under other orders and they're very unlikely to ever get permission to travel overseas. These are the people who have served their time who are on this register. And the research shows that they are likely to continue to offend throughout their lives. And so ensuring that we have the protections that they know that we know—that's the best thing we'll consider that will keep our children safe.So the bill if these individuals have been placed on the register—and again the registrable offender is a person who has been convicted of a qualifying offence has been sentenced to imprisonment or has been sentenced to a non-custodial sentence and has been made subject to a registration order. That order doesn't count if they were under 18 at the time of the offending. And those qualifying offences are class 1 class 2 and class 3 offences as defined in the Crimes Act and cover a full range of offending where the victim is under 16.And also pertinent to this bill a corresponding registrable offender is a person who as a consequence of a conviction in a foreign jurisdiction for a corresponding offence has been sentenced to imprisonment or essentially would still be eligible for an equivalent child sex offender register in that jurisdiction. In other words we could actually get offenders coming back to New Zealand who've offended overseas and would actually be on our register. Once again these are the very people who we are likely to see who will be actually travelling.So look just in the time that's left to me I just want to again thank the House thank the committees that have considered this bill and that have improved this bill. One improvement or certainly change that was made by the select committee is that it will be 3 months after the date of Royal assent before the bill comes into play. And the reason for that is that it will take time. These offenders need to be notified those who are on the register notified but also the police have to have time to get this up and running.Another aspect that is covered is: will this be enforceable overseas? Technically and legally no. However New Zealand Police have liaison officers. We have good interactions or Police have good interactions with our agencies overseas and they can through these relationships ensure that these people will be checked because I know from dealing with my Australian colleagues—bearing in mind each state in Australia is a different jurisdiction and actually have the same problem—that those same relationships become important in ensuring that they are actually able to track these offenders.So again I congratulate this House in anticipation of this bill going through today and also the committees that considered it because I think once again this shows that this is a class of offending for which we all understand the need to put in place all the protections we can so that those who will predate our children those who will basically rob them of their adulthoods which essentially sex offending does we can deal with them appropriately. So I take great pleasure in commending this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."