Shearer David: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8081. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): I just want to pick up where we last left off. I do not agree with the Minister in the chair the Hon Amy Adams. This is the Official Information Act response I received from the Ministry of Justice. Yes she got a memo on this on 12 February but this actually went through on 14 December in Australia. It was brought to the ministry’s attention by a media outlet at the end of January. Prime Ministers Abbott and Key talked about it at their ministerial meeting in February and yet it has taken until now 17 November with 2 weeks of Parliament left to go effectively that we are actually rushing this through under urgency.I do not buy the argument that we had to have the information-sharing agreement absolutely nailed down because right now we still do not have good information coming out of Australia. Pretty much everybody knows that Australia because of its complex federal and state system is not providing the information that we need to be able to process in good time the people who are coming back from Australia. But what we do need and what obviously the Labour Party will be supporting is clearly to have the sorts of provisions that we would have for New Zealanders in a similar situation. I think that is a principle that I can certainly accept and that we can all accept. But to say that somehow that had to wait until 2 weeks in the middle of October before we started drafting this legislation is absolute nonsense. We could have had this in place some time ago.We could also have been making a much firmer demand on Australia to provide that information. We had Prime Minister Turnbull come here just over a month ago. I do not know what happened in the meeting between Mr Key and Mr Turnbull but I can tell you that from our side that was the only thing we talked about—the rights of people coming back and being sent back and also the information that we had when we were in Government to make sure that we were able to protect ourselves. It really actually grates that last week in an extraordinary sort of outburst from the Prime Minister he pointed the finger across the Chamber and said to us that somehow we do not care about the safety of New Zealanders or about the possibility that rapists and murderers and whatever are coming back to New Zealand. Of course we do—that is why we are standing up and agreeing with this legislation. But to accuse us of that when this legislation had not even hit the House when we already have 200-odd people who have come back under a regime where there are absolutely no protections is absolutely wrong.I think the issue here is what the objective is of this legislation in the first part of the bill which is to provide for similar management for offenders whether a sentence is served in New Zealand or elsewhere. Obviously that pertains mostly to Australia when they are coming back. It is about protecting the public from reoffending and providing greater support for the reintegration of returning offenders. I am reading from the national interest statement here which makes the obvious point that the two are very closely linked together—that if you are going to be protecting people from reoffending then the process of reintegration is essential to making sure that that actually happens.Let us just remind ourselves what we are looking at here in terms of reoffending. The police in the reports that are put out recommend that 43 percent of the people who are sent back under the current conditions will require some sort of ongoing surveillance. That is a significant number of people. I recognise what the Minister was saying before about the numbers who are coming. Some of the numbers are now going to be including a larger group who will have more minor offences. But certainly since 2013 70 percent of offenders have been convicted of serious offences including 30 percent for assault; 20 percent for armed robbery and burglary; 15 percent for rape or sexual assault including child sexual offences; and 5 percent for manslaughter or murder. In 2013 48 percent of those people coming back under the old regime and reoffended within 2 years. So half of the people coming back under the old regime reoffended within 2 years and here we have a situation where Australia is firstly sending people back. I completely agree with the Minister that the moral case for doing that which is for the benefit of Australia—leaving people without a spouse a father or a mother on that side and secondly bringing somebody over here without any connection to New Zealand—is actually bad for both countries quite apart from the people concerned. You begin to wonder whether Australia has lost its moral compass somewhere along the line.The point is that with those people coming back we have to make sure that they are looked after properly. Although I accept what the Minister says about this legislation being narrow and only looking at the justice part of the equation what we are hearing out there is that there are offenders who have come back who are ending up in the doorways of Work and Income waiting for it to open who do not have jobs. We are hearing of people being sent back looking to commit crimes. Crimes have already been committed by these people who have come back as well already. There is no plan in place to make sure that those people are reintegrated properly so they do not reoffend. Although I accept that this is not a central part of this legislation for God’s sake it has to go alongside it surely. It absolutely has to go to alongside the legislation to make sure that the two things are together. I do not see any evidence of that at the moment with the reports that I am hearing of people ending up on the street and actually not being met at the airport and just being told to get into a taxi.I just want to finish by saying that although we accept the purpose of this bill the objectives of this bill I do not believe that the way it is being put through the way it has been introduced to the House and the speed with which it is being done will do New Zealand any favours whatsoever. Thank you.