Martin Tracey: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2762. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take a call on the Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill. I note that in her second reading speech the Minister who is currently in the chair Amy Adams said: “A 2009 study estimated that internationally 200 new images depicting sexual abuse of children were put into circulation every day. There is also evidence that the content of the publications is getting worse and the children are getting younger. Law enforcement agencies have indicated that those who reoffend in this area tend to do so with a high level of premeditation and go to great lengths to avoid detection.”New Zealand First will be supporting this bill. New Zealand First will be supporting this bill because something needs to be done. My colleague Denis O’Rourke has previously spoken on this bill and has articulated his concerns that the bill does not go far enough. I repeat those concerns here today; however we feel that at least it goes somewhere. We agree that there is a very strong need for a deterrent to those who exploit our children in this way.We would like to pick up on David Clendon’s contribution and one particular point he made in it that was around the length of incarceration and whether that is a deterrent in its own right. We would agree with him that it is not a deterrent in its own right. However I note that my colleague in his contribution to the second reading said that what we know for sure is that a shorter incarceration is definitely not a deterrent. Nothing about this should be about imprisonment in its own right. Nothing about locking a person up just like that fixes anything. So we would agree with the Green Party member’s contribution that there needs to be care counselling and services provided for those who are imprisoned but we do welcome the provision that increases the incarceration ability for these offences.We are disappointed however that although clause 4 for example increases the penalty for supply and distribution of objectionable material from 10 years to 14 years it does not go as far as we would like. It is about the distribution—those who provide the service I suppose if we want to talk about a supply and demand situation. If nobody is supplying it then demand has got to drop off. So we would like to see those who are supplying it be punished at higher levels than are currently inside this bill. However as I have said we will support this bill because at least it goes some way toward making these amends.I believe that my colleague Denis O’Rourke in his contribution at the second reading also argued that there needs to be or should have been a special provision when the offence was against children under the age of 16. He was not convinced by the officials’ arguments that this should not be included. We continue to suggest that if the offence is committed against children under the age of 16 this should be an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing.Also inside this bill we looked at clause 13. The bill creates a new Crimes Act offence of indecent communications with a young person and that means anyone under the age of 16. The new offence applies where persons charged communicate indecently with a—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Order! The member seems to be straying into a part that is not currently under debate. Can we go back to Part 1 please?TRACEY MARTIN: I beg your pardon. I will address that later on. At this time then with regard to the contributions there we talk about—I believe clause 4 is appropriately in Part 1 which is helpful for me. So if we actually talk about clause 4 again we have concerns around this clause and would have liked to see that time increased but at this stage we accept that those penalties are what they are.So taking aboard all those and obviously I am going to make a contribution later on in the piece I reiterate that New Zealand First will support this bill because it does something but we would have liked to see it do more. Kia ora.