Nakhle RimaCORRECTIONS (VICTIM PROTECTION) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingRIMA NAKHLE (National—Takanini): I move That the Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. Sorry James.On the first day of February of this year something fortuitous but potentially quite impactful occurred. This bill in discussion the Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot box. Now I say impactful because this bill although on the face of it it's quite straightforward if passed through it will no doubt improve the lives of many victims of crime.I would like to acknowledge the Hon Louise Upston the Hon Judith Collins and the Hon Mark Mitchell—who are all connected to this bill in some way and it is my quiet pleasure to now be the member in charge of the Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill.Now as I just touched upon this bill is simple in form but substantial in effect. In essence this bill seeks to protect victims of crime and protection order applicants from being contacted by the perpetrators of the crimes against them. Many people I have spoken to about this bill within my electorate of Takanini and across South and East Auckland quite frankly have expressed surprise at the fact that this specification this specific protection is not already enshrined in law. Victims of crime and those who are under the supposed safety net of a protection order should be able to feel safe and protected from unwanted undesired and unsolicited contact from those who inflicted harm upon them and who are in the supervision of Corrections. This is the crux of this bill that we are conversing today in the first reading.Now before delving into the mechanics of the proposed changes I would like to briefly discuss the current status quo which can help our listeners further understand why these changes in our opinion are imperative. Currently the Corrections Act 2004 which for the benefit of our listeners from home—in Australia as well—is the principal Act that we are seeking to amend with this bill. This Act provides a framework for the management and rehabilitation of offenders within the New Zealand corrections system and this Act the principal Act outlines the responsibilities of corrections staff the treatment of prisoners and various mechanisms to ensure safety and order within the corrections environment.Essentially the Corrections Act focuses in a broad manner on the management of offenders with some specific provisions for victim notifications for example parole hearings but does not explicitly mention preventing contact between prisoners and victims across the board. And this is where I want to acknowledge that there is a section of the Corrections Act that refers to the victims of family violence but we want to widen the scope to all victims of crime.So although the Corrections Act covers a range of situations and scenarios including the subject of telephone calls and mail being sent to people outside of prison—and telephone calls fall under sections 111 to 115 specifically of the principal Act—we believe these sections do not include the objectives that we are aiming to achieve with this amendment bill and that is to put an obligation on the chief executive of Corrections and prison managers to make sure prisoners do not contact their victims of crime. This is why the proposed changes in this bill are necessary: to fill this void; this void which is causing harm to people who should be at the forefront of our protection the victims.Now there are three changes to the Corrections Act that this bill the Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill intends to make so that this void can be adequately addressed. First by introducing a new power and function of the chief executive of Corrections into section 8 of the Act. Now this section section 8 stipulates the power and functions of the chief executive of Corrections. We want to bring in a new power to ensure that processes are established and maintained to protect victims of offences and persons for whom protection orders are in place from unwanted contact from people within corrections control or supervision.Secondly this bill seeks to amend section 12 of the Act and this section outlines the powers and functions of prison managers to also include the power and function that we've spoken about just now. And thirdly this bill also amends section 190 of the principal Act to ensure that these matters are included in the department's annual report.Now one must question why should these changes be made to the Corrections Act when the purpose of the principal Act does not include the direct protection of victims. In response to this I would like to draw the attention of the House to section 6 of the principal Act which outlines the principles guiding correction systems. Subsection (1)(b) states that victims' interests must be considered in decisions related to the management of persons under control or supervision:". And as to whether these proposed amendments are consistent with our New Zealand Bill of Rights Act I'm pleased to direct the House's attention to the Attorney-General's findings—thank you Madam Attorney-General—that this bill appears to be on par with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.Now I'd like to also draw my colleagues' attention to a various number of news articles that we've collated just to bring us into a deeper understanding of why we feel these changes should be made. As early as January of this year the Family Court ruled that a serial rapist is not to contact his daughters after he sent mail after mail of inappropriate drawings to the daughters and to another person that he had sexually abused. That was just this year January.Hon Judith Collins: Disgusting.RIMA NAKHLE: It is disgusting. In 2021 Stuff reported that a stalker was guilty of continuing to contact victims despite being in jail. And here out of the 77 convictions for this person 60 were for attempting to contact the couple—that was meant to be protected from this person—from prison. Another article: in 2019 a psychopathic sex attacker sent letters as well from prison to his victim and the victim endured three days of repeated sexual assault and violence. She said in her victim impact statement: "How is this possible? How is it possible that this can happen?" This is what we're dealing with.The corrections commissioner at the time Ben Clark said that the ability for prisoners to send and receive mail was a statutory minimum entitlement. And so this is why the specificity we talk about in this amendment bill is very important.In 2019 again a convicted stalker sent multiple mail from jail. In 2018 the article that really stirred the Hon Louise Upston to act is where someone made over 100 phone calls to a victim of their crime—from jail. And so although the Act has some type of general references to protecting victims of crime we need to make it specific.Finally I'd like to end with a quote from the victims advocate Ruth Money who said "I can't understand why this basic protection for witnesses and victims isn't already in place … It's mind boggling" Let's get this simple yet deeply effective bill through and I commend this bill to the House."