Allan KiritapuCOUNTER-TERRORISM ACTS (DESIGNATIONS AND CONTROL ORDERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I present a legislative statement on the Counter-Terrorism Acts (Designations and Control Orders) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: I move That the Counter-Terrorism Acts (Designations and Control Orders) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill and at the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 13 March 2023.As we are all aware the nature of terrorism is evolving at a rapid pace. Threats are increasingly coming from radicalised individuals acting alone often having been exposed to and influenced by extremist material online. We've seen the devastating results these evolving threats can have here on our own shores. In particular I want to acknowledge the impact of the terror attacks on victims and the wider community and in particular our Muslim community here in Aotearoa.Our goal must always be to ensure we can effectively manage and respond to the specific risks we are seeing right here at home. Following the 15 March 2019 terror attack in Christchurch the royal commission of inquiry recommended that the Government review our counter-terrorism legislation to ensure it is fit for purpose. This bill is the next step in our response to that recommendation. It clarifies and strengthens our counter-terrorism legislation in two ways. Firstly the bill amends the scheme for designating terrorist entities in the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002. These amendments will clarify how the scheme applies to designated terrorists who are imprisoned in New Zealand. Secondly the bill amends the regime for imposing control orders in the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019. These amendments will strengthen the control orders regime and include some lessons learnt from the one control order made to date in New Zealand.I'll start by setting out the key elements of the amendments to the scheme for designating terrorist entities. Under this scheme the Prime Minister is empowered to designate a group or an individual as a terrorist entity if the entity has carried out or participated in a terrorist act. Once designated restrictions are placed on that entity's use of personal finances and property to prevent them from financing terrorism and to prevent others from providing funds or support to the entity. In this way the scheme helps to prevent further terrorist acts and contributes to meeting our international obligations to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism.Currently our designation scheme does not specifically address the situation of a designated person who is in prison. This creates ambiguity in how the scheme applies to people in that situation. In particular it's not clear how the Prime Minister's powers to revoke and renew a designation apply. It is crucial that the Prime Minister's powers with respect to designated and imprisoned people are clear. This is because being in prison does not by itself prevent a person from supporting terrorism—for example it does not prevent a person from using their financial resources to support others to carry out terrorist attacks.To ensure the Prime Minister's powers are clear the bill makes three amendments with respect to people who are both designated and imprisoned. First while a designated person is in prison the bill removes the ability for that person and other interested parties to apply for the designation to be revoked on one of the currently available grounds—that is where the application is made on the ground that the person is no longer involved in acts that would make them eligible for designation. They will still be able to apply for the designation to be revoked on the ground that there was no proper basis for it to be made in the first place. Secondly it pauses the expiry of the designation while the person is imprisoned. And finally the Prime Minister must review whether the designation of an imprisoned person is no longer justified at least once every three years while the person is in prison. As part of this review the Prime Minister must seek information from the designated person and where relevant take this information into account. These amendments are important to ensure the designated scheme can operate effectively to prevent further terrorist acts while also ensuring the rights and the freedoms of designated people are protected.I want to acknowledge that this bill includes amendments to the designation scheme that will have retrospective effect. It applies the new law to existing designations of imprisoned people and to any applications to revoke an imprisoned person's designation that have been made but not determined before the amendments take effect. In addition the bill validates previous decisions by the Prime Minister to refuse an application to revoke the designation of an imprisoned person. This Government is keenly aware that legislation with retrospective effect should only be introduced where there is a strong justification to do so. We've carefully considered the issues and feel strongly that retrospectivity is necessary to protect public safety. If the amendments did not have retrospective effect the ambiguity in the current law could result in an imprisoned person's designation expiring or being revoked despite them continuing to pose a risk of involvement in further terrorist attacks. As such we consider the retrospective application of these provisions as justified.I now turn to the second part of the bill which proposes amendments to strengthen and improve New Zealand's control order regime. Control orders are civil orders made in the High Court on application by the Commissioner of Police. They apply to individuals in the community who meet the definition of a relevant person" and who present a real risk of engaging in terrorism-related activities. I want to be clear that a control order can only be imposed if the High Court is satisfied that the two-stage test set out in the legislation is met. Firstly for people already in New Zealand the individual concerned must have a history of relevant terrorism-related offending; and second they must continue to pose a real risk of engaging in terrorism-related activity.A control order imposes restrictions that aim to prevent these individuals from engaging in further terrorism-related activities. In this way they are similar to other post-sentence orders for serious sexual or violent offenders such as extended supervision orders and public protection orders. The High Court can impose a wide range of restrictions as part of a control order; these can range from regular report-ins with police through to more stringent restrictions such as residential requirements curfews and electronic monitoring. However every restriction must be directly related and proportionate to the specific terrorism risk of each individual.As I have mentioned the nature of terrorism is evolving. To respond to the specific threats we are seeing and to pick up on several lessons from making New Zealand's first control order we are proposing four targeted changes to strengthen the control order regime. First the bill provides for a wider range of objectionable publication offences to qualify as relevant terrorism-related offences for the purposes of control order eligibility; secondly the bill provides for sentences of home detention and community-based sentences for terrorism-related offences to satisfy part of the eligibility test for a control order; thirdly the bill provides judges with greater discretion when setting control order restrictions; and fourth the bill changes the current automatic name suppression requirement so the court can more effectively strike a balance between preventing the glorification of terrorism and reassuring the public that a known terrorism risk is being appropriately managed. These changes will give police the option to apply for a control order in respect of a wider range of people who pose a real risk of engaging in terrorism-related activities. Finally I just want to stress that the changes the bill makes to the designations and control order regimes—these are necessary. They will strengthen the tools we have to ensure we can better protect our communities from known threats of terrorism and at the same time the amendments carefully balance the rights and freedoms of those individuals they may apply to. To provide clarity as to the Prime Minister's powers with respect to designated and imprisoned persons as soon as possible I am proposing that Justice Committee report on the bill to the House after four months. The public will have the opportunity to share their views on the bill at select committee and I look forward to the Justice Committee's consideration of the bill. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."