Borrows Chester: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Borrows Chester: Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
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CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to take a call in respect of the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2). I also appreciate the fact that it will be coming before the Social Services Committee. As a member of that committee I look forward to investigating the circumstances around this bill thinking about how this bill will be applied hearing the evidence and having the opportunity to do some stuff around the protection of vulnerable people and vulnerable children especially. I am sure that all of us who come to this House who have worked with young children who have been abused and who have been neglected relish the opportunity to do some work in this area. 
The fact is that we cannot legislate for people to feel responsible or to recognise their own responsibility but we can legislate to hold people to account. When we have people living within households where there are vulnerable people they should be held to account. There is a need to do something tangible in a country where one child every month is murdered. I can call to mind the faces of young children whom I have worked with over many years who have been absolutely abandoned by those whom they turn to seeking help. 
I am very pleased to be part of a Government that is working very strongly towards making vulnerable people in our community safer. To hear the previous speaker Jacinda Ardern suggest that the funding arrangements for instance for Te Rito and the Women’s Refuge was in some way a case of the Government’s abandoning its responsibility to look after vulnerable children is absolutely ridiculous. For instance in respect of the monitoring of POL 400 family violence forms that are currently being done by Te Rito coordinators through the police and through Women’s Refuge those forms will still be collated those referrals will still be made and the Government will still be funding those positions. Previously they had been prior to the last Government changing the rules around that in terms of who was going to do it. In Wanganui the Living Without Violence Trust was contracted to do that work. The previous Government took it off that organisation and gave it to Women’s Refuge for reasons of its own despite the fact that the job was being done perfectly well. 
In this country we have seen horrific cases. People can call to mind for instance the case surrounding the death of Nia Glassie. She lived in a household where a number of adults over the age of 18 lived. A number of people were witness to the atrocities that were carried out against that poor child until she eventually died and people did absolutely nothing in respect of her. So I am pleased that this legislation will force people to take responsibility and if they do not take responsibility themselves they will be held to account for the action they did not take to protect those vulnerable young people. 
I remember one particular case where a grandfather had set about grooming his 12-year-old granddaughter. In response to that the mother came and made a historic complaint of sexual abuse in respect of herself and her sister. As the investigator I worked on that case took the various statements became satisfied in my mind that there was a case to answer and went and knocked on the door of the abuser the father of the two mature women who had made a complaint and the grandfather of the child whom he was grooming. I knocked on the door he saw me and he said “I know who you are. You’re Chester Borrows aren’t you?”. I said yes. He said he had been waiting for me for 30 years and he immediately admitted to the offending that was alleged against him. Nevertheless while he went through the process and pleaded guilty one of his daughters wrote to the judge and asserted that everything she had said had been a lie in spite of the fact that he had made several admissions to us and in spite of the fact that the evidence was well and truly beyond a reasonable doubt should it have needed to be proven. The point I want to make is that the impact of sexual grooming is absolutely horrific and has a lifelong effect on people who have been the subject of those despicable acts by those most despised within our society—and so they must be. 
Along with changing the law widening the grasp of the law and holding people to account we must as a society and a Parliament seek to understand the nature of sexual abuse not only just the ramifications of it not only just the effects of it and not only just to point the finger and lay the blame but also to actually fully understand the reasons behind sexual abuse in terms of why it happens and what we can do to curtail this country’s horrific record in respect of it. I congratulate the Minister for Social Development and Employment on promoting the discussion about mandatory reporting. The fact is that in protecting our young children and the vulnerable adults within our community we not only have to paint everything with a broad brush but have to do everything we can through a number of pieces of legislation to be able to keep people safe. 
In answer to a question that was raised by the previous speaker Jacinda Ardern we must remember that people who have a special relationship with vulnerable people and fail to act are caught by a number of pieces of legislation. The under-18-year-old de facto partner of a child’s mother for instance would no doubt be caught by other sections of the Crimes Act which require people in such circumstances of having a special relationship with a young and vulnerable person who is abused neglected and in need of care to take action and to be held legally responsible if that action is not taken. 
I commend this bill to the House at its first reading. I look forward to the select committee discussions and to the investigations of the matters and circumstances arising from child neglect and abuse which is just one of the things catered for in this legislation. I am pleased to speak in its support.