Doocey Matt; Rurawhe AdrianCORRECTIONS (SCHOOL NOTIFICATION OF SEX OFFENDERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): I move That the Corrections (School Notification of Sex Offenders) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill.If I can start by one statement that I think will be pertinent to this whole debate over the coming hour: informing schools when a sex offender is being placed in the community is not a new practice for Corrections. They already do it so there is no argument for why they can't do it mandatorily. This is what my bill does: it makes it mandatory that when a sex offender is placed in a community the local school is notified.I am a parent. Many members of Parliament are parents or grandparents or have nieces and nephews. I believe New Zealand parents send their kids to school with the expectation that if a sex offender was housed in the local community that school would be informed. I believe parents expect that and when I've talked about this bill to people such as school principals to parents and to a whole range of other stakeholders the feedback I get is that in fact people are surprised this isn't happening already. And what do we get? A Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis with his head in the sand saying I would want to know what issues with the current system this bill is trying to fix." Well if he wants to know the issue this bill is trying to fix go and talk to Mark Brown Newtown Primary School Principal. He had a paedophile who was deemed high risk of reoffending placed near his school and that principal found out via social media. Corrections apologised because that sex offender should not have been placed next to that school down the road from a day care down the road from a playground. If my bill was legislated that placement would not have happened. Mark Brown was surprised as a principal to learn he wasn't given the respect to be informed that that high risk of reoffending paedophile was placed next to his school. That is why Mark Brown backs my bill and I back him.Notifying local schools of the placement of a sex offender nearby is already a working practice of Corrections. My bill just makes it mandatory. Like Mark Brown Newtown Primary School Principal most people are surprised this is not already happening. Parliament has an opportunity tonight to rectify that and to support parents so that they know when they send their kids to school that schools have been notified when a sex offender is placed in that community. Kelvin Davis the Minister of Corrections with this head in the sand said he believed the current law was strong enough to ensure the safety of the community; yet when I asked how many schools had been notified of sex offenders in their community he doesn't know as the Minister. Why? Because that information is not held centrally. He told me through written parliamentary questions it's held in manual casefiles. There is no oversight of notification of schools of a sex offender being placed in their community. There is no auditing of it. Yet he believes the current law is safe for the communities. Well how did that happen in Newtown? How many times is Corrections going to have to apologise to school principals.Then to cap it all off because all this information is too hard to find the Minister didn't want to spend any time finding it I asked a written parliamentary question. It revealed that 455 people whose lead offence was a sex offence were released from prison during 2019-20. Three hundred and sixty-three of them whose lead offence is a sex offence were on parole. Yet when I OIA'd the Ministry of Education they came back and said in a similar time frame—and this is the time when 455 were released 363 on parole—do you know how many times the Ministry of Education were informed to notify schools? Seven. Seven times when 363 were released on parole. Now I don't doubt for a second that some sex offenders need to be managed in the community. That is realistic. What I expect like every parent in New Zealand is that their local schools are notified.Principals telling me they've had 50 years' experience in teaching; one principal has had 33 years as a principal. She said she's never had State agencies alerting her to a sex offender being released in the communities. She said principals had not been informed adequately about offenders before. Another principal—22 years—he's never been notified. Another principal in Auckland: "Anything that was going to endanger children we would want to know." That is why school principals are in support of this bill. They want to protect the children that they are entrusted with by parents—Kiwi parents hard-working parents that send their kids to school expecting that schools are notified when a sex offender is placed in the community. I want to know how we've got a system where Corrections can release hundreds of offenders with their lead offence being a sex offence yet the Ministry of Education says they've only notified or been part of a notification seven times. That does not add up. That puts our people at risk.And I come back to that original point because I'll tell you what we're going to hear it all tonight. We're going to hear every excuse for why this law can't be passed. I'll reaffirm my first point: informing schools when a sex offender has been placed in the community is not a new practice; it happens sometimes. This bill only makes it mandatory. And do you know why I brought this bill to the House? Because I had Corrections come to me and it's going to happen to every MP in this House if it hasn't already—if you've had those meetings before and they turn up and they talk casually and then half way through a conversation they drop in "Oh we've just placed two sex offenders in your community in your electorate." Well that's fine; I accept that they need to be responsibly managed in the community. What I don't accept is when those staff of Corrections told me they had done the due notifications. I didn't accept that verbally and I asked them to put it in writing. And do you know what happened? They stalled me for months. Finally they wrote to me and what did they tell me? They hadn't notified like they said they had. That's happening up and down the country. That's why it's important to pass this bill tonight to make sure that when sex offenders are placed in the community—even when they've been rehoused; there's a provision in my bill: within 72 hours that local schools are notified. Parents expect this. New Zealanders are surprised this is not mandatory now.I'll finish with a quote. The mother of a girl abused as a child who supports my bill—her daughter is the victim of a child molester. She was surprised to hear principals are not already routinely told. She wants political parties to unite and pass laws to keep schools better informed. "They should be a sensible Parliament" that mother said. Tonight we have an opportunity to be a sensible Parliament and to ensure that it's mandatory when a sex offender is being placed in the community that the local school is notified.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."