Barclay Todd: Drug and Alcohol Testing of Community-based Offenders and Bailees Legislation Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Drug and Alcohol Testing of Community-based Offenders and Bailees Legislation Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8350. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): I rise to speak in the second reading of the Drug and Alcohol Testing of Community-based Offenders and Bailees Legislation Bill. In response to one of the questions raised by the last speaker David Parker I just want to provide a clarification. Within the law that was passed yesterday for returned offenders there is a clause for special conditions that can be applied. One of those special conditions could be in relation to drug and alcohol testing. So it is in fact covered by the laws that were passed yesterday.The important part of this piece of legislation is that it helps ensure conditions in relation to community-based offenders and bailees who are subject to being prohibited from using drug and alcohol substances so that in fact when they are released from prison they actually comply with those conditions. It gives the police and the Department of Corrections more flexibility to monitor and in fact test offenders who have been suspected of using the substances that they are being forbidden from using. So I think it helps the conditions to be met on a number of levels: first because it is an obligation for a start for the offender not to use the substance in many cases. We know that two-thirds of prisoners have substance abuse problems and around half of all crimes that are committed are committed by somebody under the influence of either drug or alcohol substances. So it helps to actually reinforce one of the conditions of their release but also it helps to support them to stay away from one of their drivers of crime.We know that for so many offenders drug and alcohol abuse is a major factor. So it is an assistance for them in terms of their rehabilitation too. But thirdly it also protects the victims. Kelvin Davis and I were today sitting in on four Parole Board hearings up at Rimutaka Prison and of the four three of those hearings were in relation to offenders who had committed crimes under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. A major factor that was coming through there from the convenor of the Parole Board and the other two members sitting on it was that they were trying to extract a view around how these offenders should they be released back into the community were going to be prevented from falling into the same patterns of crime again. A major factor was around how they could convince the Parole Board that they would not be under the influence of drugs or alcohol or fall back into that pattern. So this piece of legislation is very important in relation to that.I want to just touch on another point that the previous speaker made in relation to sexual crimes and the increase in reported crimes. That is right. There has been an increase in reported sexual violence - related crimes due to a number of factors as the Minister of Police was describing today in question time. We have created an environment through our preventative approach to justice which encourages more victims to come forward when they have been a victim of sexual crime. So obviously as part of that the reported numbers are going up and that is a reflection of that. We are taking sexual crimes very seriously so I think that the flippant remarks by the Opposition were a bit unfounded.In conclusion I would just like to offer my support for this bill.