Gallagher Martin: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
Gallagher Martin: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2240] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I will not take a very long call. As chair of the Law and Order Committee I just want to thank the members of the committee. A previous speaker Mr Chris Finlayson was trying to be positive and I respect his attempts to do so. I know he will join with me in thanking members of the committee for their very fine work including his own colleagues the Hon Tony Ryall and Brian Connell a good hard-working member from the South Island. Obviously I want to acknowledge Ron Mark and Marc Alexander the former deputy chair. 
I acknowledge this bill as in my view a big step in the right direction. I have listened very closely—of course I have—and will continue to listen very closely to Ron Mark and I acknowledge the wonderfully good contribution he made during the hearings. 
 I also want to take an opportunity to say that I am looking forward to the regime that will operate at airports and the message that will go out. It is interesting that when this gets media coverage there will be a number of people who will start to think about paying off fines because they are about to go on holiday to the Gold Coast and suddenly realise they will be at embarkation and “zammo tough bix” they ain’t going. The logic is very simple. If people can afford to take a holiday and fly on Freedom Air Air New Zealand or Emirates Airline to the Gold Coast then they can afford to pay their outstanding fines and reparations. 
I think the real issue that this Parliament must continue to address is a reciprocal information-sharing policy with Australia. The previous select committee visited Australia and talked to various state and federal jurisdictions about this and I refer members to page 7 of the commentary. I thank previous speakers for alerting us to this. Obviously more work needs to be done on this policy with Australia both at federal level and state level. I also highlight the fact that it is not plain sailing from state to state. The concept should be in terms of the notion of jurisdiction. In the case of someone who lives in Invercargill and shoots through to Darwin it seems to me that there needs to be a jurisdiction in terms of cooperation so that somehow the long arm of the law will reach from Darwin to Invercargill and vice versa for those people who owe the system at either state or federal level in Australia or in New Zealand. I acknowledge indeed that is an area we need to look at. 
The first priority is obviously to stop such people from leaving the country in the first place. I absolutely acknowledge that but I think more work has to be done to develop a closer relationship with state and federal authorities in Australia around this area of fronting people and if need be bringing them home to pay their fines or have a system whereby they appear before appropriate authorities in the relevant state and have to pay up. 
Without further ado I thank members of the previous Law and Order Committee for their very hard work. I look forward to making progress on this bill. 
Clause 1 agreed to. 
Clause 2 agreed to. 
The Committee divided the bill into the Crimes Amendment Bill the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill the District Courts Amendment Bill (No 2) the Immigration Amendment Bill the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill the Privacy Amendment Bill the Sentencing Amendment Bill the Summary Proceedings Amendment Bill and the Tax Administration Amendment Bill  
divided into Crimes Amendment Bill Customs and Excise Amendment Bill District Courts Amendment Bill (No 2) Immigration Amendment Bill Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill Privacy Amendment Bill Sentencing Amendment Bill Summary Proceedings Amendment Bill and Tax Administration Amendment Bill 
pursuant to Supplementary Order Paper369. 
Bill to be reported with amendment presently.