Logie Jan: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is subject to correctionLogie Jan: Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:15105. Text is subject to correction.]JAN LOGIE (Green): The Green Party will be supporting the Objectionable Publications and Indecency Legislation Bill going to the Justice and Electoral Committee and we thank the Minister of Justice Judith Collins for bringing it to the House. This bill increases penalties for producing trading or possessing child pornography by increasing the maximum penalties for the possession import export supply distribution and making of objectionable publications. It also clarifies that a person can have possession of an objectionable electronic publication without saving it or downloading it. It provides for the presumption of imprisonment for repeat child pornography. This bill also creates the new criminal offence of indecent communication with a young person under 16 years of age.It is very clear that the online environment can be a dangerous place particularly for children. It is important that this House considers the changes in technology the proliferation of abuse and the proliferation of the distribution of offensive images andchild pornography online. This bill is furthering that conversation and we thank the Minister of Justice for doing that. It is shocking that the evidence is that the content online is getting more severe and that the age of the children involved in the offensive material is getting younger. Clearly we need to be having a public conversation about that and actually working to change the culture that is producing this material.It is not a given that we have a culture that supports rape. We can actually create a society that understands consent and embraces consent where enthusiastically consensual sexual activity among adults is the norm and what is approved of and where anything separate from that is shunned. We can if the will is there create that society and I for one am looking forward to the day when we can make that happen and make that a reality.We agree that advances in technology mean that offending is becoming easier and more damaging though I do need to put a caveat around our response to this bill and recognise that we have not seen any evidence that extending prison sentences is a deterrent or that offending or reoffending are affected by a change in sentencing. In fact I would caution the House that in the case of rape and sexual abuse legislation we have seen the reverse to be true.When we increased the penalty to 20 years it created a reluctance in the police force and in sentencing and reluctance is part of the problem we have in people coming forward and laying complaints when the consequence is so severe. We have also seen in this area that judges have not yet sentenced any offender to more than 5 years’ imprisonment despite the maximum penalty for some offences currently being 10 years’ imprisonment.So it is not going to solve the problem. We have to do the social and cultural work. We need to consider quite seriously the role that sentencing plays in this picture understanding the evidence and the impacts properly rather than that instinct. And it is an instinct that I completely understand—to want to lock them up and throw away the key—because the harm is so great and so significant. But if it is going to actually have the opposite effect of what we want then we need to be open to consider that and make sure we make the best decisions possible. Our children and victims of sexual violence deserve that.I do acknowledge that there is a gap in the present legislation that means it is not necessarily an offence to view indecent acts performed in a private place yet streamed over the internet. That clearly we need to fix and that has been done in this bill with the creation of the new criminal offence of indecent communication. We are very pleased to have that presented to us and to be able to support it.On the whole again I offer thanks to the Minister of Justice for bringing this bill to the House but I also echo Labour colleague Andrew Little’s request for a coherent vision and a plan for the legislative agenda that is based on the best evidence. We would see this ideally being fitted into the context of the Law Commission’s work which again I cannot help but bring up as being tragically taken off the agenda for the Law Commission. So I would hope that others in the House will join us in requesting the Minister to get that put back on the agenda so that we can actually have a more strategic response that is based on the best evidence to protect victims and ensure that justice is available to them. Thank you.