Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. This bill the Counter-Terrorism Acts (Designations and Control Orders) Amendment Bill is the next step in the Government's work to ensure that our counter-terrorism legislation is in fact fit for purpose. Right at the start I'd like to acknowledge that it's good to see comradery from across the House on issues of national importance such as counter-terrorism. So I'd like to acknowledge the member who has just spoken Mark Mitchell and it's great to see that at times when national security is paramount this House is able to work together.The Government is working to strengthen our counter-terrorism laws to make it harder for those people who are known threats to undertake terrorist acts. The changes that we are making in this bill will improve the effectiveness of the control orders Act. It will also expand the criteria for those high-risk individuals who can be covered by the restrictions which limit their ability to undertake such an attack. The Government is always seeking to strengthen the terrorist designations and in this specific bill it is making it explicit that it covers individuals who are in prison.The proposed changes to the designation and control order schemes are in line with the Government's overall commitment to implementing the recommendations of the royal commission's inquiry into the Christchurch attack. It's important that that work continues but alongside of that attack we've also seen more recent developments with the attack in New Lynn last year. Both of these attacks serve as a continuous reminder to New Zealanders of the devastating consequences to individuals and our communities from any terrorist attack. These are important amendments as we look to keep New Zealand as safe as we possibly can in a continuingly evolving global climate. Our goal must always be to ensure that we can effectively manage and respond to the specific risks we see in New Zealand and also emerging risks.Firstly this bill amends the scheme for designating terrorist entities in the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002. These amendments will clarify how the scheme applies to a designated terrorist particularly those who are imprisoned here in New Zealand. Secondly this bill amends the regime for imposing control orders in the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act. These amendments will strengthen the control orders regime in place currently and also include some of the lessons we have learned from the only one control order that has presently been made in New Zealand to date.What this bill does overall is following the terror attack in LynnMall supermarket last year where the individual responsible was a known threat to New Zealand security—and Cabinet sought a review on how the control order scheme could further be strengthened to prevent such instances from occurring in New Zealand's future. This bill amends the regime for imposing control orders in the Terrorism Suppression Act and these amendments will strengthen the control orders regime as it operates now and also include those lessons that we have learnt from the one as made to date under the existing legislation.This bill includes the following changes to the regime: it expands the eligibility criteria for those who can be covered by a control order and includes if the person has received a conviction for objectionable material and publications that promote torture extreme violence or cruelty. This is in addition to the current criteria which includes a conviction for objectionable publications that promote terrorism. In addition to this the bill expands the eligibility criteria to include people sentenced to home detention and also community-based sentences. It also allows sentence conditions and control orders to exist concurrently for those offenders to ensure that a consistent approach to risk management is always in place to make sure we're protecting the safety of New Zealanders. It also allows for greater judicial discretion when setting control order restrictions to ensure they can be more closely tailored to the risk once it is scoped in order to mitigate that risk.It also provides in more detail requirements for the following kinds: a requirement that the relevant person reside and remain at a specified address and that also electronic monitoring requirements are in place if required. It makes name suppression requirements more flexible than they currently are so that an appropriate balance can be struck between preventing the glorification of terrorism activity while also reassuring the public that known terrorism risk is being appropriately managed for the wellbeing of our community.This bill amends the scheme for designating terrorist entities in the Terrorism Suppression Act. The designation scheme was initially brought in to stop New Zealanders from providing financial support to those overseas in terrorist groups in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Now as the terrorism landscape has evolved our laws also need to change. For the first time since the scheme was introduced we have a situation where a designated terrorist entity is in fact imprisoned and imprisoned here in New Zealand.Overseas we have seen examples of how imprisoned terrorists continue to attempt to influence and incite others from behind bars. We are seeking to further reduce any ability for designated entities to be glorified or to support others in carrying out such acts of terrorism. This bill amends the Act so that in the case of a designated person who is in prison no application for revocation of the designation can be made on the grounds that the entity is no longer involved or in any way carrying out the terrorist acts. It also requires the Prime Minister to review the designation every three years to determine whether it remains justified. In making this assessment the Prime Minister must consider relevant information provided by the designated individual.Following the March 15th terror attacks on Christchurch the royal commission of inquiry recommended that the Government review our counter-terrorism legislation to ensure it's fit for purpose. This bill is the next step in our response to that recommendation. As chair of the Justice Committee I look forward to the submissions that we receive and to working alongside all members of that committee to do our best job possible to bring this back to the House for the second reading. I commend it to the House.