O'Rourke Denis: Organised Crime and Anti-corruption Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Organised Crime and Anti-corruption Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:512. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First):New Zealand First is supporting this bill’s referral to the Law and Order Committee. Any bill aimed at strengthening the law to combat organised crime and corruption is very welcome. The aim is to improve New Zealand’s ability to collaborate with international efforts to disrupt organised crime and that is also very welcome.New Zealand has an enviable reputation for being a corruption-free society and international indexes commonly place us first or first equal among the least corrupt nations. That reputation has of course been hard-won but it is much more easily lost. The effort to keep New Zealand corruption-free requires I think at least three things: first a culture in which the people themselves reject and suppress corrupt practices and embrace honest and fair dealings; second a robust legal system to outlaw corrupt practices backed up by effective policing; and third good leadership from the top down.We have a superb legacy that has bequeathed us a largely corruption-free society for which we can thank our forebears. We have good legislation especially the Crimes Act which is soon to be enhanced by this bill. The worrying element of course is in the quality of our leadership. I and many others have been deeply concerned about the revelations in Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics. It shows that the likes of Cameron Slater conduct smear campaigns tell the filthiest of lies and conduct other guttersnipe activities against politicians civil servants and others whom the current Government does not like. Not only that but he is paid for it—paid by companies with vested interests to pursue and paid by others with a political agenda.It is perfectly obvious that the Prime Minister’s office and in my assessment the Prime Minister himself are involved in these activities. John Key makes no secret about his regular conversations with Slater and he says that he does so not in his prime ministerial capacity but few would be so gullible as to believe that. It is unfortunate that Mr Key is now able to claim a mandate to continue his dirty politics ways. He will now live for ever in our nation’s history not only as Prime Minister but also as the “Minister of Dirty Politics”. On that issue the buck certainly stops with him. His obfuscation about his dealings with Slater only confirms his utter lack of leadership when it comes to good practice. He is indisputably the leader of just the opposite.Despite that failing and the risk to New Zealand’s reputation resulting from the Prime Minister’s dirty politics activities and those of former Ministers especially Judith Collins the bill does have some very useful provisions. It allows New Zealand to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Corruption it enables implementation of the agreement between the United States and New Zealand and it facilitates compliance with a number of other international conventions.Particularly welcome are the changes made to the human-trafficking offence in the Crimes Act. The transnational element of the offence has been removed to ensure trafficking can be prosecuted regardless of whether the crime crosses a border. There are also amendments to address gaps in New Zealand’s identity offence framework to ensure that the selling transferring distributing importing exporting or otherwise making available of unlawfully obtained or manufactured identity information is a criminal offence. Similarly the making possessing selling exporting and disposing of goods intended to facilitate the commission of identity-related crime are also criminalised. It is so easy with today’s technology to steal information so we need very strong laws to combat it. I now use a special envelope especially when overseas to carry my credit cards because criminals now have the technology to read them just by walking beside you.Money-laundering is also a booming criminal activity needing the strongest possible deterrent. This bill clarifies that intent to conceal is not a necessary element of the offence and it removes the requirement that the property laundered must be the proceeds of an offence punishable by at least 5 years’ imprisonment. The ability to detect and investigate money-laundering is also improved through amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. Financial institutions will be required to routinely report inherently high-risk transactions to the financial intelligence unit of the New Zealand Police.The bill also amends the Policing Act to expressly provide the police with the power to share personal information with their international counterparts. The Law and Order Committee will need to ensure that the safeguards are included to ensure that any information sharing is appropriate and will not infringe on the right to privacy of New Zealanders. We in New Zealand First will take a special interest in this part of the bill.The bill also contains amendments to enhance New Zealand’s anti-corruption legislative frameworks and brings New Zealand into line with international best practice as set out by the United Nations conventions. It will update the definition of “crime involving dishonesty” in the Crimes Act to ensure that those convicted of corrupt offences cannot hold positions of trust in the community. That has been something of a gap in our law that certainly does need to be plugged.The foreign bribery offence in the Crimes Act is to be amended to remove the dual criminality requirement to ensure that New Zealand can effectively prosecute foreign bribery regardless of whether it was an offence in the country in which the conduct occurred. There is a new offence too to criminalise the acceptance of a bribe by a foreign public official and the acceptance of a bribe in return for using one’s influence over an official. The offence of foreign bribery is also to be amended to clarify the circumstances in which a legal person is liable for foreign bribery.Lastly it is very heartening to me that the bill substantially increases the penalties for bribery and corruption in the private sector. Some offences will be punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment and there are fines of up to $500000 for some offences. I look forward to examining the bill further and welcome its introduction with a view to supporting it if that should prove possible after it has been examined through the select committee process.