Jones Dail: Sex Offenders Registry Bill — First Reading 
Jones Dail: Sex Offenders Registry Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7499] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will support this bill going to the Law and Order Committee. The idea of doing something to ensure that we can keep track of sex offenders when they finally come out of prison is a very good one. As the previous speaker has said those of us who practise law and who come across sex offenders realise that once people are sex offenders they almost certainly continue to be so. It seems to be something in their system. 
One of the saddest aspects of sex offending is that it is sometimes encouraged by other members of the family. The worst case I had was a case where a stepfather had interfered with a child and his wife and his stepmother both criticised the child for telling the school that she had been interfered with. The grandmother had been interfered with the mother had been interfered with and they felt that it was part of tradition that the child also be interfered with. That was no excuse of course. Strangely the probation officer thought the defendant should be released on probation but I started my submission by suggesting that the sentence should be at least 5 years which Justice Thomas as it happened agreed with. We have to be realistic sometimes. It is strange how probation officers can see cases like this and somehow feel that people like that offender should be excused because of the situation in the family. We almost wonder whether we can ever resolve sex offending when sometimes victims from the past like the grandmother virtually encourage it and castigate new victims for revealing what is happening to them. It is a dreadful situation. 
Time and time again when one appears in court for sex offenders one knows that they will go to jail obviously but one also knows that nothing is going to happen in jail to stop them from being sex offenders when they come out. It is a terribly hopeless feeling when as counsel one knows that something should be done and the judges know that something should be done to try to get rid of the problem of sex offending but ultimately all that we can possibly do as a society is to have something like the Sex Offenders Registry Bill so that at least we have a warning as to where these people are. In a way it is just a cheap way for Parliament to try to resolve the problem. The problem ought to be resolved before the event. But once the event has happened something should happen in the jail system to try to have this problem reduced and something should be done in the sex offender’s family so that when the sex offender is released he—and it is usually a he—does not go into an environment where sex offending is par for the course. It is a tragedy that there are sections of our society where we see that happen. People often say that lawyers do not know what is happening in society but lawyers really go down to the bottom of the barrel many times and there would be many lawyers with stories worse than the one I have just recounted. 
It is interesting to see that Australia also is setting up a paedophile register. That worthy journal the  
Cairns Post 
 of Friday 4 July 2003 indicated that the Australian justice system is setting up a register: “Ministers meeting in Melbourne pledge to develop complementary legislation for the registry of convicted paedophiles. The Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison welcomed the agreement.” I look forward to there being cooperation between New Zealand and the Australian states to make sure that people who offend here do not feel they have a safe haven in Australia to go to and vice versa. Australian sex offenders should know that the Australian registry is available in New Zealand if possible so that Australians do not come over here and start conducting their dreadful behaviour in New Zealand. 
As I said New Zealand First supports this legislation going to the select committee.