Worth Richard: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Worth Richard: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:12587] 
Dr RICHARD WORTH (National) 
: 
 I must confess to having some concern when I learnt that the Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill was to be sent to the Justice and Electoral Committee. But my hopes rose when I saw who was on that committee and appreciated that the merit of the legislation would be judged by Christopher Finlayson—the deputy chairperson—and Chris Auchinvole. Quite clearly in looking at the traits of those two people I saw that they were blessed not only with razor-sharp intellect but also unerring insight. It is the case that this bill comes back from the select committee without amendment and I think we probably owe a debt of gratitude to those two National MPs who saw immediately that the merit of this legislation was undoubted. 
I started by saying I had expressed some concern because in the course of the speech made by the previous speaker she described these offences that are now to be struck from the statute book as speech-only offences. But they are not that at all and that represents a misreading and a misunderstanding of those provisions that are now to be repealed. It is quite true to say that the legislation is concerned with seditious statements but the statements may not only be made orally but also be in writing. A particular provision in section 84 of the current law deals with seditious statements. To reinforce the point section 85 is headed “Use of apparatus for making seditious documents or statements”. 
The Minister has carefully taken us through an analysis of the history of sedition. I would simply say that sedition is a term of law that refers substantially to covert conduct that is deemed by the legal authority as tending towards insurrection towards the established order. Put in very simple terms sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the Government in power. Sedition is more about encouraging the people to rebel and treason which remains on the statute book is actually betraying the country. I cannot help but observe that it is an interesting comment on the jurisdictions of Australia and New Zealand that Australia retains these offences on its statute book and as recently as 2005 transferred the sedition provisions to anti-terrorist legislation which was then going through the House. 
What we are concerned with here is in effect a balancing of interest which is a role that politicians must constantly perform. We are looking at a series of offence-creating provisions that have been on the statute book for a very long time and then looking at the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 as I guess the balancing point for an evaluation as to the appropriateness of this legislation. We speak a lot about the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and its provisions— 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Except in the context of the Electoral Finance Bill. 
Dr RICHARD WORTH 
: Except in the context of the Electoral Finance Bill as I am reminded. I think it is an important point in noting the provisions of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act that although it affirms certain rights and freedoms it makes it very clear that those rights and freedoms are not absolute. In fact section 5 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act contains an ability for there to be justified limitations. Here we are talking about a particular right called the freedom of expression. Scripted in this way everyone has the right to freedom of expression including the freedom to seek receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form. 
This legislation that we are looking at in Committee is a very good example of how quickly a Government can act when faced with a Law Commission report that it favours. I note that in April 2007 the commission’s report—which as others have said was titled  
Reforming the Law of Sedition 
—was tabled in Parliament and we have seen this legislation progress at speed from there.