McKee NicoleNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I stand to speak on behalf of the ACT Party to the Counter-Terrorism Acts (Designations and Control Orders) Amendment Bill. I'd like to start off by thanking the Minister of Justice Kiritapu Allan for calling us in for a briefing and a discussion about this bill before it was presented to the House. That is very much appreciated. Just as my colleagues across the way here—National—have made recommendations in regard to the bill before it was presented we agree with those and we do thank her for that opportunity so that we could come to the House and support the hearing of this bill initially in the first reading. The bill is an omnibus bill that will change two pieces of legislation: the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 and the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019. The changes are going to introduce a single broad policy around terrorist designations and control orders. The change to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 will allow the Prime Minister to designate individuals as a terrorist entity. Currently the legislation refers to organisations such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban; rather than individuals the amendment will allow the Prime Minister to designate either as a terrorist entity.Lone actors with terrorist intent have shown themselves here in New Zealand. We have one currently incarcerated for the heinous crime that he committed on 15 March 2019. He does not claim to associate with any particular group or terrorist entity. His actions on that day were an individual's terrorist attack against the people of New Zealand. This amendment will allow a Prime Minister to therefore designate any person who attacks our communities as a lone actor—like the Christchurch terrorist did—to be a terrorist entity because there are reasonable grounds for the Prime Minister to act upon. In this case he meets all of the criteria of a terrorist entity. He's been convicted of murder attempted murder and terrorism. He's carried out and participated in a terrorist attack. This designation also means that third parties cannot deal with an entity's property nor can they make property or material support available to that entity. Because we are dealing with an individual as an entity the current law did not allow for instances where that entity may be incarcerated here in a New Zealand prison. Currently clause 35 of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 states that the terrorist entity designation expires after three years unless the Prime Minister makes a further order based on their belief that the entity still poses a risk to society. This bill seeks to amend clause 35 so that there is no expiry of the designation nor can there be an application to revoke the designation if the entity is serving a sentence in a New Zealand jail. The designation itself will be paused for the time the individual is incarcerated here. In fact almost everything goes on hold except for the Prime Minister needing to review the settings once every three years. If the Prime Minister decides that the restrictions are no longer necessary then they can revoke the designation themselves. But this would be done in the future by review with assessment rather than reapplication on potential revocation.So in summary the changes to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 will effectively mean an individual can be named as a designated entity. The expiry of a designation is paused if the entity is in jail. The three-yearly review is retained but the grounds are amended. The designated entity will still have the ability to challenge the designation and its ongoing status but this will be done through a review process rather than a revocation one. The second piece of legislation that is to be amended is the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019. We've only had one person issued with a control order and he went on to injure six people three of them critically in a supermarket stabbing in New Lynn Auckland last year. His motivations were Islamic State of Iraq and Syria inspired and we understand that the legislation prevented him from being retained in prison and so he was under heavy surveillance at the time of the attack. This enabled a response from police within 60 seconds of the attack in the supermarket. Within that time though six people were stabbed. And the realities are that we cannot have our police watching some individual for 24 hours a day seven days a week for extended periods of time. I pause here to reflect on our gratefulness to the New Zealand Police that they were watching this man on this day back in September 2021. We thank police for their quick actions which no doubt saved many lives. So the changes to the control orders will add some new definitions which include and allow control orders on community-based sentences and electronic monitoring as well as post-detention conditions and residential requirements. Additions to section 6 will expand who is eligible for a control order so that those that have been convicted of a terrorism offence in New Zealand and have received a home detention sentence or a community-based sentence will be captured in this Act. Further additions to section 6 will ensure that the conditions I just mentioned will continue even if there is an application for appeal against conviction or a sentence is suspended because of the filing of a notice of appeal or applications for leave to do so. However it doesn't all run one way. New clause 28 will allow for the discharge of a control order if an appeal by the offender is successful. It also allows for a new control order to be applied for. This bill is also seeking to expand what we determine as a specified objectionable publication held by the offender to include publications that promotes or supports acts of torture or the infliction of extreme violence or extreme cruelty infliction of serious physical harm and where it encourages acts of terrorism. The bill when it amends the Act will allow a judge to make orders specific to the individual the order is placed upon tailoring the order to that individual—for example when making an order a judge must consider how an order's requirements will affect the person's personal circumstances. An amendment here allows the court to consider the person's ability to actually comply with those orders made against them. The bill will also allow the court to make orders as to where a person may reside how long they must remain at that address allowing the use of electronic monitoring consequences for tampering with an ankle bracelet allow post-detention conditions and place upon them residential requirements. Effectively this part of the bill is seeking to ensure that where a person is of concern to our society as a terrorist risk our courts can establish control orders that can be unique to that individual in its conditions and can be used as ongoing controls once an incarceration sentence has been served. Another change this bill will achieve is in regard to the automatic name suppression of the identity of the offender. Amendments will allow the courts to make an order that does permit the publication on an offender's identity if the court so wishes. We lost our innocence as a nation back in March 2019. The horrors that New Lynn faced just last September 2021 has shown us all that the New Zealand as we knew it has changed. And while we don't agree that laws should be made off the back of one terrible person or event we do recognise that changes are needed to upgrade us as a country to deal with common threats that we are increasingly facing. We must remember the two violent terrorist acts we are amending our laws for were not carried out by us but by foreign national terrorists. Our laws and amendments must reflect how we react and prevent such acts from occurring.ACT supports this bill at its first reading. We want to ensure the safety of all New Zealanders as we move from these dreadful events. However we are mindful that making laws off singular incidents has not benefitted Kiwis in the way promoted by this Government in our recent past. So we look forward to the select committee process so that we can hear from our communities as to their thoughts on their proposed changes. The ACT Party does support this bill to its first reading.