Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this bill and I want to begin by acknowledging the work of the Minister the Hon Poto Williams. I've known the Minister for some time and I just want to acknowledge her work over many decades before she came into this House and in this House to address sexual and domestic violence and in particular her maiden speech where I remember she spoke about James Whakaruru and that this is just one of many examples of the Minister putting her principles into action in the actions that she takes in her role in this House.I'd just like to begin by acknowledging some comments from the previous speaker the Hon Michael Woodhouse just in his commentary around this action not being a punishment. I agree with his comments around that and the particular comment I'd make is that anyone claiming that there's one action we can take to prevent sexual abuse against children perhaps isn't looking at the fact that we need multiple tools in the tool box. And this is one small tool in the tool box of breaking the cycle of sexual abuse against children in Aotearoa New Zealand.The purpose of this bill as many speakers have noted tonight is to correct a drafting error that occurred. And I just want to acknowledge members opposite who have worked alongside the Minister and our team to ensure that we can pass this legislation tonight. I want to acknowledge that officials in particular have worked extremely swiftly over just over a month to correct this wrong that occurred through the Supreme Court and the amazing work that they have done to ensure that we can implement this legislation tonight just over a month after that Supreme Court decision.In my previous role before coming into Parliament some people may not realise but I had a role working for the Anglican Diocese of Nelson as a health and safety coordinator and part of that role involved child protection matters. So for two years I worked in a role that had been not unknown to me but where I didn't have expertise going into the role during what has been a particularly difficult and gruelling time for churches in Aotearoa New Zealand particularly as we participate in the royal commission of inquiry into State-based care and faith institutions. This is a sobering and difficult topic to talk about for many of us in this House. Many of us have friends and whānau who have been affected in this way.I want to make a particular point about the need for retrospective legislation just based on my experience as a church member where unfortunately many cases of sexual abuse often take years if not decades to make their way into an allegation that may go to police or some other form of authority. And this is why for me the pragmatic approach which is to include retrospective legislation is the right approach. For many victims and survivors of sexual abuse will take a very very long time to come forward and that may well mean that we are currently sentencing people in 2021 for example who may have committed an offence 20 or 30 years ago.The purpose as other members have spoken of tonight of the sex offender register—it's not a public register as some people in our country have called for—it's a particular tool in the tool box to assist offenders so that they don't reoffend. The Police state that there's around 20 percent of offenders who leave prison that may go on to reoffend. And while that may be a low risk actually that's a risk that I think is a risk we need to take action on and follow.One of the important parts about breaking the cycle of this type of offending is also to ensure that we don't see more and more children being offended against because unfortunately the evidence is that sometimes those who have been victims of sexual violence go on to offend themselves. So breaking the cycle is an important piece of ending sexual violence in Aotearoa New Zealand and ensuring that we are putting supports in place to support people so that agencies can work together to actually help people not go on to reoffend.So the purpose of this bill is very much around keeping our children our tamariki in Aotearoa and our whānau safe. While I note that some speakers tonight have raised concerns around the retrospective legislation I agree with speakers who have noted that in some instances as a Parliament as the lawmakers of New Zealand we actually have to take steps to protect our children. And I'm very very happy that we've been able to work so quickly to write the wrong that came through the Supreme Court decision. On that note I commend this bill to the House.