Carter Kahurangi; O'Connor Greg; Kuriger BarbaraKAHURANGI CARTER (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to speak today on this bill and ask some questions so thank to the member. So rights by nature rub up against each other. We're always weighing up rights of one group over another and by nature they do this. So that's why we have things like the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act to help guide us.I want to understand in relation to the report of the Attorney-General which found that the bill was inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act has the member considered the inherent tension between children's rights and their right to be free from harm which we all are dedicated to and the right to the freedom from double imprisonment? Does he consider that children's rights in this instance outweigh the principles of natural justice and the inconsistencies with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act?Protecting children is important to us all. And I can see everyone here is very passionate about it including the member whose bill we are speaking on. We need to bring bills that protect children not just make us politicians feel good. So I want to know and really understand has the member seen any evidence which shows how many children this bill is likely to prevent sexual harm to? What stakeholders and experts did he engage with from the sexual violence sector in drafting this bill to ensure that it does effectively minimise harm to children?Of course we want to protect children from any kind of harm and especially from sexual harm. So what advice has the member had on how to ensure that the bill is targeting higher-risk offenders and the sharing of the information between Police and Customs targets those offenders who are highly likely to reoffend? Has he seen evidence on similar schemes in Canada which only target those offenders who are high risk? And did he consider a similar scheme for this bill?Rehabilitation is a vital part of protecting children and ensuring members of society are functioning once they are released back into society. Has he received any information or assurances from the Government that extra resources will be provided to Customs to ensure that they have the tools to work with offenders who have been on the register and are at risk of reoffending? Has he received any information or assurances from the Government that extra resources will be provided for rehabilitation of offenders on the register domestically to prevent harm to children? Because that's what we're all here to do while still ensuring that they are not subject to potential hefty fines for the rest of their life or facing double punishment.With one more reading in the House there is a possibility that the Greens could support it. It's my understanding that some level of travel reporting requirements for offenders on the sex offender register already actually exists. Could the member please share any detail about those travel reporting requirements and why the introduction of new ones will achieve reduction of harm to children? And did the member receive any advice on how child sex tourism or harm to children overseas from offenders in New Zealand could be better prevented without creating new inconsistencies with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act? Thank you for your time.GREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Look a couple of issues there. I think one of the most important ones there—you talked about a threshold around serious offenders. Can I just say if you have a look at the legislation and look at the list of offences in the Schedule which are qualifying offences I think you can be satisfied—or certainly I'm satisfied by looking at that that you have to be a serious offender to get on the register on the first place. This is not a randomised population. These are people who have qualified for the register by—and I'm happy to share with the member what the qualifying are but there is quite a list of class 1.And the actual definition broadly is that a person is a registrable offender who's been convicted of a qualifying offence—which is those offences I've spoken of but I won't go through in detail—and has been sentenced to imprisonment or has been sentenced to a non-custodial sentence and has been made subject to the registration order. In that case an extra decision has been made by the judge that this is a person who even though they haven't gone to prison still needs to be on the register. They're not a registrable offender if at the time of the offence they were under 18. And these qualifying offences which I think is the basis of your question 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. So again without going through the list it covers those serious offences in the Crimes Act.Also of note with the international a corresponding registrable offender is a person who as a consequence of a conviction in a foreign jurisdiction—and this may relate to some of the questions previous—has been sentenced to imprisonment or essentially would be eligible for an equivalent child sex offender register in their own jurisdiction. So for example if someone in South Australia was eligible or on their register came back—and this could be the case with the 501s we hear so much about—they would go on to our register. So it's a fairly high threshold to get on to this register and it's not permanent either.Now the other question you asked as far as resource. Well Customs currently and Immigration passports are checked just to answer that question that came from my right before. There is actually a requirement to check the passport when they come back to New Zealand for offenders. As far as much of that work that member's talking about no it is already done when the bill was originally written and conceived and has come to what we have today. So this is an amendment bill that really just speaks to those provisions that where the requirements of an offender in New Zealand which by the relatively low rate I spoke of before for sex offenders would be good evidence that it is probably working. There is no better evidence than that that these offenders have the lowest offending rate.I think that covered all your questions. If there was anything else I'm certainly happy to answer another question.CHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): The Hon Mark Mitchell then I'm going to come to you Rima because you've been waiting for a while.