Barclay Todd: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — Referral to Justice and Electoral Committee Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Harmful Digital Communications Bill — Referral to Justice and Electoral Committee Second Reading[Sitting date: 24 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2557. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Harmful Digital Communications Bill in this second reading. I am pleased that the previous call was only a half call because that inaccurate misinformed drivel by the previous speaker was utterly unacceptable. It clearly shows that she has not read the bill or paid any attention through the passing of this legislation. Her accusation that material has to be left online for 48 hours is completely false. It is to be up to 48 hours as the Minister has already articulated. It would be helpful if the Labour Party is going to be opposing legislation that Labour members actually know what they are opposing before they stand up and dribble on about opposition to the bill.As we know the purpose of this bill is to deter prevent and mitigate harm caused to people by digital communications and to provide victims with a quick and efficient means of redress. That is why we are trying to pass this legislation. It is to assist the victims in this dreadful circumstance as we have already been told about over the last few months—a number of incidents involving harmful digital communications and the effect that that has on victims through a pretty dreadful public display. We would like to commend the Green Party for its support in this so far and I would like to offer maybe just a thought to the Labour Party that while you are having trouble in paradise maybe you should take a leaf out of what the Green Party is suggesting because it seems to be quite sensible.Just moving on yesterday we were in Hamilton in that member Sue Moroney’s list seat. We met with representatives from Waikato University as well as from a number of other tertiary institutions. They were talking about the development in technology and the challenges the consequences and opportunities of that. We know that legislation is going to be one step behind the development of technology because technology is developing in a continuous cycle. I think part of the problem as well is that—in terms of the types of abuse and bullying that can take place in this day and age with cellphones and with Twitter and Facebook and other forms of digital abuse—the parents of those people probably are not even slightly aware exactly what the forms of abuse can potentially be. I know for one my parents have both got cellphones. My dad probably turns his on about once a week just to check it. If someone had a conversation with him about abuse through the use of digital technology he would probably be a little bit lost by it. So I think part of the challenge as well is to try to inform parents and caregivers of children about the quite significant effects that harm through digital means can have. This is what some of the steps in this bill in addition to what the Ministry of Education is doing will work to achieve.I want to focus a little bit on the education side because as the Law Commission has found one in 10 New Zealanders has experienced harmful communications on the internet and that number doubles for those aged between 19 and 29. It shows that one in five New Zealand high school students experience some form of cyber-bullying or harassment. I was working in Hekia Parata’s office at the time that the previous Minister of Justice Judith Collins initiated conversations around this bill and I can say that both Minister Parata and the Ministry of Education were very keen to be a part of the development of this bill because one of the constant issues that is being reported by schools both to the Ministry of Education and to parents is the effect that bullying has on the student population. There are also the flow-on effects of truancy. A lot of people are not showing up to school because of the effect that bullying has on them.So it is quite a complicated area and the Ministry of Education and schools have been looking for extended avenues in order to help them address this serious issue. It is a complicated issue as well given the complexities that technology involves. I think the devastating impact that cyber-bullying can have cannot be underestimated particularly when it comes to young people and it is contributing to as I said increased truancy failure at school and emotional problems such as depression self-harm and suicide.In 2011 there were 93 male youth suicides and 31 female youth suicidesin New Zealand. What I found quite puzzling coming from a rural electorate was that there was a higher rate of suicide in rural areas than in urban areas. I think a contributing factor to that is the effect of digital bullying through instantaneous links in relation to Facebook Twitter and cellphone usage. The more that we can do in this space to address the harm that it has on individuals and families emotionally mentally and physically in some cases and the flow-on effect of that—we should be doing everything we can which is why it is great to have a cross-party approach I think to issues such as bullying and mental health - related issues.Again it was quite concerning that the previous speaker from the Labour Party Sue Moroney did not even consider the implications of this bill when she was standing up attacking the Minister Amy Adams who was actually answering some of her questions on the floor here tonight. Had the member actually read the bill and the implications of it half of those questions would have been answered. Perhaps it might have had the Labour Party supporting the bill. It is a shameful position for the Labour Party I would have thought—an absolutely shameful position.Andrew Bayly: Shameful.TODD BARCLAY: Thank you very much.Sue Moroney: Will you get the Minister to meet with us?TODD BARCLAY: I think that the member should potentially start reading the bill again revise her position and then consider whether or not that is something that she would like to do.It was actually quite interesting when we were in Hamilton yesterday assisting David Bennett to hear the positive feedback we were getting about the National Party’s performance and his performance up there particularly in the areas of education and justice. It is a bit of a shame that the member who spoke previously Sue Moroney has gone around standing in a number of seats in the Hamilton area. She seems to be our biggest asset actually when it comes to campaigning in Hamilton as we were hearing yesterday.Getting back to the purpose of this bill the changes to the criminal law system are around creating particularly a new offence of posting of harmful digital communications with the intent of causing harm. It would apply to communications that are grossly offensive or indecent obscene menacing or knowingly false. The offence will also cover serious instances of intimate recordings being published online without a person’s consent. It will carry a maximum penalty of 2 years’ imprisonment.Some of the concerns raised today were around the potential criminalisation of children. As we have already discussed we are trying to use other approaches as opposed to going straight to the courts to deal with this issue but in serious cases where there is repetition and serious misconduct in this space at the end of the day there are victims who are detrimentally affected by this and it could even cost some people their lives. So in fact if it does end up criminalising a child but there is the chance of saving the life of another then I think that is something that we are just going to have to deal with and I think on balance that the general public would support that view.So it is a serious matter that we are dealing with and it is not something that we want to take lightly. As we know we would want to use any prevention that can take place to prevent a child from getting into the youth justice system because of the spiralling effects that can have downstream.Another thing is that this legislation has been echoed in Australia the UK and the United States which already have similar offences that criminalise communications that cause serious distress and mental harm. On the one hand we have got an Opposition saying that we need to be doing more in this space to prevent mental illness and to try to get on top of the issue of bullying but when we try to do that—as part of a wider package of reforms including in areas such as education social welfare and justice—we are getting shut down and we are getting a lack of support from them in that regard. So it is a bit confusing as to exactly what the Opposition expects us to do and thinks that we should be doing in that space.Just to go back to the education aspect in terms of what will be done to address cyber-bullying in schools and of school-age children there are a number of programmes that are currently in place throughout the education system particularly the National administration guideline 5 which requires boards of trustees to provide a safe physical and emotional environment. This includes addressing the issue of bullying including cyber-bullying. The Bullying Prevention Advisory Group which was established and chaired by the Secretary for Education Peter Hughes is working on this issue with teachers principals and parents across a wide range of schools currently. There is a constantly updated edition of a document that records and reports on success in this area which can be found on the Ministry of Education’s website.There are also a number of other avenues such as the Online Safety Advisory Group which has recently produced a publication entitled Digital Technology: Safe and Responsible Use in Schools which has been developed to aid schools in addressing this issue. There are also programmes in schools such as Wellbeing@School and Positive Behaviour for Learning—which this Government has put significant investment into—to try to establish more coherent assistance for schools to address the problems of bullying and other behavioural difficulties. Of course with regard to the Positive Behaviour for Learning programme that is something that provides tools for schools teachers and parents to help them create a school environment that encourages positive behaviour. It involves a number of initiatives such as operating with NetSafe.Although I would just like to acknowledge the other speakers from this side of the House and the Green Party as well who have commented on this bill tonight I suggest that the Labour Party members should potentially hang their heads in shame and read the bill before commenting on it in futures stages. Thank you.