Moroney Sue: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 03 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1120. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour):It is indeed a 5-minute call. This is a short contribution on the second reading of the Sentencing (Protection of Children from Criminal Offending) Amendment Bill brought forward originally—not very originally but in most recent history—by Asenati Lole-Taylor. I want to acknowledge her for bringing the member’s bill into the House having the opportunity to have it drawn from the ballot and also Pita Paraone for continuing to ensure that this bill remains before the House and that it can in fact be debated at the second reading.Many members have spoken about this bill being related to the issue of children being in an environment where methamphetamine is being used or where in fact it is being created. Yes that has been well traversed. I do not really want to add to that debate and discussion at all. But I do want to bring to the House’s attention another area of criminal offending where children are quite frequently and far too frequently present and that is in the field of domestic violence. It is quite frequent that police officers are called out to domestic violence incidents. Also one of the next things they are doing is contacting Child Youth and Family because there is often a child who has witnessed that domestic violence. We know that the link between domestic violence and family violence is very strong. We know that children witnessing violence in that environment are very likely to have been subjected to violence themselves. Of course the act of witnessing a loved family member being attacked by another loved family member is in itself violence towards the children who are witnessing that. So that is another area where this bill would apply.As we have heard from the speakers beforehand the bill is not necessary because judges at sentencing do regard it as being an aggravating factor that children are present in these situations where the criminal offending takes place and so they should. If criminal offending was not bad enough in its own right to have children through no fault of their own involved simply by being in the environment is just unthinkable for many people in this House.I cannot address this issue without calling out the Government members on the sanctimony—the sanctimony—of their contributions to this bill and on their not understanding the link between getting right the bonding and attachment between children and family members in those early months.Chris Bishop: Ha ha!SUE MORONEY: Well Christopher Bishop laughs but all the research and evidence says that if we get the bonding and attachment right in those early months parents will never put their children in this situation because they will have developed that protection gene. They will have developed that through their bonding and attachment and that is why it is critically important that we get 26 weeks’ paid parental leave in place—so that bonding and attachment can occur.Simon O’Connor: Here we go.SUE MORONEY: “Here we go.” they say. Yes well you are going to continue to hear about it because of the hypocrisy of the Government members pretending that they care about this issue without understanding what leads to it. Quite simply when parents allow their children to be put in the situation where they are exposed to drugs that will cause health problems for the children where they are exposed to violence the simple fact is that those children would be immunised against being put in those situations if that parent was properly bonded and attached to that child.Simon O’Connor: Oh what a load of rubbish!SUE MORONEY: The Government members opposite are saying it is rubbish. They clearly do not care about the research and evidence that suggests otherwise—the volumes of research and evidence that tell us otherwise. To quote the Labour leader: “Just cut the crap and actually deal with the issues that matter.”Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!SUE MORONEY: Has my time concluded?Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No it has not. Your time has not concluded but the member should stick to the bill that is under debate at the moment and carry on as if she is debating the current bill not a bill that has already been dealt with.SUE MORONEY: Thank you and I am indeed debating this bill. The point is that if we want to ensure that parents immunise their children against being in an environment where there is criminal offending taking place then we want to make sure that parents actually have empathy and attachment and are well bonded to their children. If they do they would not allow that situation to occur.I feel that my time probably is going to be up now. I challenge the members opposite to do the right thing.