Bakshi Kanwaljit SinghKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the third and final reading of the Enhancing Identity Verification and Border Processes Legislation Bill. This is an omnibus bill that has the ability to strengthen the Government agencies including the justice sector and border control agencies to effectively perform their functions related to law enforcement including the detention of restricted patients special patients special care recipients and other offenders.This is as the previous two speakers have mentioned the result of the escape of Phillip John Smith who escaped from prison and was able to cross the border. There was an inquiry which resulted in recommendations and some of the recommendations—most of the recommendations—have been implemented but there are some loopholes which this legislation will fix to ensure that no one can escape from prison or cross the border in due course. National is acting to keep the public safe from offenders through ensuring that high-risk individuals cannot leave New Zealand without permission or hide who they are through their multiple aliases. That is one of the loopholes. The bill responds to the legislative weaknesses around offenders and special restricted patient management as identified in the Government inquiry into the matters concerning the escape of Phillip John Smith.Some of the amendments that were recommended by the Law and Order Committee have been accepted by the Minister of Justice. First of all the one that I would like to touch upon is the amendment of the Victims' Rights Act 2002 to require Corrections to notify victims when an offender absconds from temporary release not just after an escape from prison or home detention. This is important because the victims are the ones who are the most vulnerable and we want to ensure they are informed immediately if there is any change in the circumstances.This bill will also amend the Victims' Rights Act to allow relevant agencies to contact victims directly to protect their safety even if the victim has nominated a representative to receive notifications on their behalf. During the select committee process it was raised that sometimes the representatives are not contactable and in those cases Corrections or the agency can directly contact the victim to inform them if the circumstances have changed again.There are amendments to the Sentencing Act 2002 the Parole Act and the Corrections Act 2004 to explain the purpose of the collection of biometric information including allowing collection from offenders on community work and prisoners. This point was also discussed during the select committee: that it is important that anyone who is convicted whether in prison or in community service—we should collect their biometrics so that we can identify them. These biometrics can be shared with the agencies. There was another point raised during the process about privacy. That is why the agencies are required to disclose how much information has been shared among agencies and for what reason. That will bring transparency and that was the reason why we recommended that. With these words I would like to commend this bill to the House.