Lotu-Iiga Sam: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8134. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections): I rise to voice my support for the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill. What this bill does in principle is to empower the Department of Corrections to supervise returning offenders. They are offenders who will be managed under standard as well as special conditions consistent with those used to manage offenders who are released from New Zealand prisons—consistent with those offenders. As the Minister of Justice has already said this is a regime that is currently not in place. It is a regime that no other Government prior to this Government has seen fit to put in place.This bill is about providing conditions to manage the risks of those returning offenders in the interests of public safety and public security. Public safety and public security are the No. 1 goal here. We have heard members opposite talk about reintegration and rehabilitation and they are important but the primary goal is to ensure the public’s safety and security from those offenders who are returning. How does that happen? Well it happens through regular engagement by probation staff by agencies and by NGOs who are out there doing the mahi doing the work currently with offenders who are released from New Zealand prisons.It is about managing those people and making informed decisions. This bill sets in place a framework within which we can obtain information from the respective authorities in Australia. That includes the Federal Government but it also includes state Governments. State Governments oversee the imprisonment of Australian as well as New Zealand citizens who are in state correction facilities.Of course secondly it is about conditions that are used to facilitate the rehabilitation and the reintegration of offenders. Members opposite have talked about this but as I have already said safety comes first. Also what should be mentioned is that some of these returning offenders—quite a number of them—will be awaiting appeal. So whether or not it is appropriate to impose conditions in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration when some of these people will actually be returning to Australia needs to be determined within those conditions.Thirdly members opposite have talked about rehabilitation and reintegration not being in the primary legislation. Well it is not appropriate that they be in the primary legislation because the conditions to determine the safeguarding and the monitoring and the surveillance of these returned offenders will set out quite clearly on an individual level how those offenders will be managed.As has already been stated the Department of Corrections has been working alongside other agencies both justice and police all year to prepare for the return of this increased number of offenders from Australia. The Department of Corrections has helped manage and supervise these people as is envisaged by the bill. It is essential that we know who they are and what they have done and that we have some detailed information around their needs around the risks and around some of the challenges that will be in place in terms of monitoring these offenders once they return to these shores.That is why in July I went to Darwin and I signed a memorandum of cooperation alongside corrections Ministers from the various states. Ultimately some of that more detailed information in order to manage some of these offenders is going to be required from the states. That includes psychological reports and some of the assessments and the risk analysis and risk assessments that those states do in order to manage those offenders both within those corrections facilities in the states as well as upon release and the conditions upon which they are released into Australian society. This legislation is not to manage just Australian deported offenders; it is to manage deported offenders wherever they come from right around the world. We know that there are also risky offenders that come from other countries. This legislation will capture those people.In terms of rehabilitation and reintegration I can say to this House that the Department of Corrections is working alongside other agencies. It is working alongside NGOs like for example People at Risk Solutions which does a wonderful job in the community helping to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders. A grant of $100000 was given to that society in order to help with the reintegration services for returning offenders. Of course that will not be the only cost. There will be many other costs and members across this House have noted the cost that will be incurred not just by the Department of Corrections but by other agencies in order to in the long term take care of and monitor these offenders.Of course the department will work alongside and in collaboration with some of these community providers as well as social service agencies local government and other Government agencies in order to support these offenders as they adjust to life in New Zealand. That is in the same way that the department will work closely with deported offenders to ensure that they have this support alongside domestic offenders.This bill has a twofold role. It is about holding offenders to account in terms of the conditions imposed and it is about safety and security for all New Zealanders. A mother of a victim came on Radio New Zealand National this morning and said it has the potential to save lives. It has the potential to save lives where monitoring of a high-risk offender will lead to a better outcome and avoid the risk to and the deaths of New Zealand citizens. I support this bill. It allows for fine work to be extended to offenders returning to New Zealand from overseas. It is in keeping with this Government’s track record of driving legislative change that strengthens our ability to keep the New Zealand public safe first and foremost as well as reintegrating and rehabilitating these offenders. That is why I commend this bill to the House.