Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Thank you for allowing me to take a call on the Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Bill. I want to acknowledge the Hon Kris Faafoi the Minister of Justice who brought this piece of legislation to the House. When he spoke on this last week he acknowledged that the bill would likely cause and inspire debate both in the House and in the public and boy has it. It's saddened me because I'm not sure if it's been debate or if it's been mud-slinging or if it's just been crass rhetoric that's been thrown around but this piece of legislation is actually amending something that should never have been there in the first place. This piece of legislation is I was going to say an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff but it's not even that; it's worse than that. For us on this side of the House as the Labour Party we're about not going to the top of the cliff but going beyond the cliff to right before you even get to the cliff side to deal with offenders. It's things like restorative justice it's things like family group conferences and it's things like social workers in schools that actually is around addressing the issues not just Lock 'em up and throw away the key." Because what does that do? That just creates more engrained people who are learning the ways that aren't right.For myself I come from a place of restorative justice and spent many years working in this field with both victims and offenders of crime with communities affected by crime and impacted by crime. It's always interesting because we often got criticised in restorative justice because it was just a slap over the wrist or a once over lightly or a kumbaya and a cup of tea afterwards but it was far deeper than that. Many times I sat in restorative justice conferences with gang members—with seriously freaky people to be honest who I wouldn't want to cross in a light alley let alone a dark alley—but the difference in the restorative justice process was seeing the fear and the trepidation on the offender's face when they walked into the room because it was so different to a courthouse; it was so different to standing here and seeing the judge at the other end of the room with tables and lawyers in the way whereas in this situation you were coming face to face with the person that you hurt the person that you harmed and that was far greater and far more impactful than the current justice system and how it operates. In many ways in this three-strikes system there is no accountability but seeing the restoration—and no not the shaking hands and hugging and walking away and all being friends again but being in a place where the voice of the victim was heard where the offender was able to understand the harm that was caused to understand the ripple effect not only for the victim but for the victim's family for the victim's community and it goes on and on and on.So I am standing in support of repealing this piece of legislation so that we can actually focus more on how we reduce harm. Harete Hipango who just sat down previously talked about this crisis on crime and the cost-of-crime crisis and being smart on crime. Well yeah we on this side of the House are going to be smart about crime; we're going to continue to lean in. And boy we've got more work to do I know—I know we do—but sticking with what this is and the status quo isn't going to solve things.I look at my own community in Taranaki and I look at START Taranaki which is an initiative that serves young people who are at high risk who have already caused harm and who have already offended and it's around intervention in the early days. It's about intervention to not let them end up in prison to ensure that—yeah they have to do time for their crime that's for sure but what are the causes right here what are the issues that have allowed for this young person to be in front of a judge? What are the causes of this young person having to be arrested by the police? What are the causes of the hurt that this young person has caused that has meant that they have had to go through the justice system. So we need to figure out ways where people do not offend or if they're in that space they need to find ways to reform. I commend this bill to the House."