Muller Todd: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMuller Todd: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6641. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): I rise to take a call this evening to support the first reading of the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill. Like my colleague Matt Doocey I would like to acknowledge Minister Tolley for her work in this area and for bringing this bill to the floor of the House and also the Hon Judith Collins for her previous ministerial roles. I know that she had a particular advocacy for such a register.This bill is seeking to strike the right balance between protecting some of our most vulnerable children—who are aged from a few months old through to 15 years old—on the one side and on the other the rights of those who have committed these crimes and been found guilty for them but are returning back into the community and are no doubt wanting a fair life as they do that. In my view this bill traverses that age-old tension between public safety on the one hand and individual rights on the other. But the bill that we are discussing this evening reflects a clear bias towards keeping our most vulnerable safe. It is anchored in a view that information tightly held that is used to inform risk and associated response is an appropriate framework to protect those who need our protection but it does of course at the margins erode the rights of individuals.That is a balance I am comfortable with and no doubt during the select committee process we will hear a spectrum of views from those who are across New Zealand on this issue. I am going to listen with interest and I am sure that most of our select committee members will to assure myself that we have landed in the right place. I believe at the moment that we have. I also think it is right that we as the Social Services Committee reflect on it. This is a whole-of-Government approach which this Government has brought in to protect and look after our most vulnerable particularly children. So I am very confident that under the leadership of Alfred Ngaro and the deputy chairmanship of Matt Doocey and others we will have the appropriate discussion and traverse the areas that we need to.Sexual offending against children is a serious problem that causes significant and long-lasting harm. Reported child sexual abuse is increasing. In 2012-13 505 offenders were convicted of 1819 sex offences against children up 20 percent from the previous decade. That to be honest is likely to be a lower-than-reality number because children of all of our community are less likely to have come forward in all cases if they have been offended against. What we do know is that victims of child sex offenders are some of our most vulnerable in New Zealand. Their lack of emotional physical and intellectual maturity puts them at serious disadvantage to those who are leveraging their often adult status. These adverse effects are significant. They can include chronic depression low self-esteem sexual dysfunction and personality disorders amongst others—and I guess more tragically they often have an increased risk of being an offender themselves in time.The key problem that we are seeking to solve with this bill is to close the gaps in Government information collection and information sharing systems that have become evident in reviewing recent incidents relating to reoffending. I think this is a key point that we should bring out in this discussion—that this has occurred. We have seen situations where reoffending has occurred in society and as we have looked deeply at the causes of that and what the conditions were in the place when that happened it was the lack of information and the lack of sharing between relevant Government ministries that were contributing factors to that.This bill seeks to establish the child protection offender register as we have heard this evening. It includes all offenders aged 18 years or older at the time of the offence who have been convicted of a qualifying child sex offence and of course were then sentenced to imprisonment. It also enables a judge if it is a non-custodial sentence to assess the risk profile of that individual and then also direct them to register on the register as well. It also includes a condition to capture if you like on the register those who have committed these crimes in offshore jurisdictions but who intend to live in New Zealand for more than 6 months. Again as long as the offending was of a similar threshold to what the equivalent would have been in New Zealand they too will need to be registered on this proposed register.I will spend a moment on the register itself. I think it is worth here in this first reading to just step through some of the components of that. It is going to have a range of personal information of these individuals: their names and other identifying particulars—address and the like as you would expect—details of each qualifying offence or corresponding offence if it was in an offshore jurisdiction; the date they were sentenced; the date the registrable offender ceased to be in custody; and of course an obligation that if any of that information changes they have to update the Department of Corrections within 72 hours of any change or 48 hours if they are seeking to travel. Just as important every 12 months there is an obligation to make sure that that has been reconfirmed as accurate. As has already been discussed this evening the time frames in which they need to be on the register are 15 years or 8 years from the date they have been released from prison or potentially for life depending of course on the seriousness of the qualifying offence for which they were convicted. As a point of detail those who are on this register because of their non-custodial sentence and the judge’s direction are required to be on this register for 8 years.In terms of the ongoing management of the register obviously in this bill it is clear that the Department of Corrections and the Police will share responsibility for managing that. I think again that that is a very sensible and efficient conclusion. The Department of Corrections whilst those offenders are in prison and once those on the register move out into the community then swaps it over to the Police to be the lead manager of that interface. Agencies such as the Ministry of Social Development and Housing New Zealand will of course continue to have limited access to the information—limited but they do have the capacity to have access to it if it is clear that it is in the interests of public safety.Obviously this information needs to be updated to establish a complete picture of emerging risk of reoffending. I think that that is a key component of this register—that it is not a static piece of data. Those with the greatest skills of being able to assess the risk profile of individuals can assess the data can look at the trend line of recovery of the individual and can build a particular support plan around them. It is that interface if you like between the data and a management plan over time that reduces the risk on our vulnerable children in New Zealand.That is why I think this is a good bill and I welcome the conversation that we are going to have as the Social Services Committee over the next few months. Thank you.