Power Simon: Child and Family Protection Bill — First Reading 
Power Simon: Child and Family Protection Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:8802] 
Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Child and Family Protection Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration. This bill is the next step in this Government’s commitment to reinforce the ability of the courts to act to protect children and families from all forms of violence. 
This Government has already taken action to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence are made more accountable for their behaviour. The Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Act passed in October last year strengthened enforcement of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 with the introduction of on-the-spot police safety orders. The Act also amended the Sentencing Act 2002 to enable sentencing judges in the criminal court to issue protection orders on behalf of victims. 
The Child and Family Protection Bill now takes the next step with measures that will ensure that court processes and programmes are more responsive to the needs of victims of domestic violence including in particular child victims. In 2007 6400 children were involved in applications for protection orders. Most of those children had witnessed violence and some had been subjected to violence directly. The bill clarifies when protection is available for child victims of domestic violence and provides the court with a greater ability to review care arrangements when children are involved in domestic violence proceedings. 
Circumstances occasionally arise when it is not clear whether a child remains covered by a protection order such as when a protected person dies. The bill therefore affirms that any child of a deceased protected person remains protected. 
The bill makes it clear that a protection order applies for the benefit of any child of the applicant’s family until he or she is 17 years old. Once the young person turns 17 the bill allows that person to apply to the Family Court for the current protection order to continue. Section 54 of the Care of Children Act currently enables the court to make interim care or contact orders to protect the welfare and best interests of the child when a protection order is made. This bill moves that provision into the Domestic Violence Act to underline the importance for the court to consider care and contact arrangements when children are involved in domestic violence proceedings. The bill also provides the court with a new discretion to offer a review of care and contact arrangements where a temporary protection order is made without notice. 
A second group of amendments to the Domestic Violence Act will involve court processes and procedures. The bill enables the court registrar to make changes to a direction to attend a programme such as adjusting the date and time of the programme where necessary to enable a respondent to attend. Other measures remove any opportunity for a gap between a temporary and final protection order that could result inadvertently in protected persons having no protection. 
Amendments to the Care of Children Act 2004 will also provide greater clarity and flexibility regarding the protection of children. The Family Court deals with many families who are involved in proceedings under both the Domestic Violence Act and the Care of Children Act. More consistency between the two Acts is desirable particularly to ensure that the Care of Children Act is clear that protection is available to children who are victims of psychological abuse. The bill therefore amends the Care of Children Act to reflect the same definition of violence used in the Domestic Violence Act clarifying that “all forms of violence” means physical sexual and psychological abuse. 
The bill ensures that the court may make an order allowing a person who is subject to a protection order to take care of or have contact with a child only if it is satisfied that the child will be safe. 
The bill enhances the protection of children who are at risk of being wrongfully removed from New Zealand. It delivers on New Zealand’s commitment to protect the welfare and best interests of children internationally. When seeking to obtain an order preventing the wrongful removal of a child from New Zealand it will no longer be necessary to prove that the risk of someone taking the child out of the country is imminent. It is also proposed that the orders be made more flexible. Previously parents may not have wanted to seek an order because they want to retain the ability of the child to travel overseas. I hope that these changes will encourage parents to apply for these orders in all cases where they are necessary to protect children. 
Finally the bill includes a new offence under the Adoption Act 1955 of improperly inducing consent for the adoption of a child. This is the last legislative amendment required for New Zealand to ratify the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children child prostitution and child pornography. New Zealand signed the optional protocol on 7 September 2000 but has yet to ratify it. This bill will make it an offence for a person to induce another person by improper means to consent to an adoption. The new offence will apply whether it is committed domestically or transnationally and will attract a punishment that reflects the gravity of the crime—up to 7 years’ imprisonment. Ratification of the optional protocol will demonstrate this Government’s commitment—and I hope this Parliament’s commitment—to ensuring that New Zealand meets its international obligations to protect children from economic and sexual exploitation. I commend this bill to the House.