Lotu-Iiga Sam: Public Safety (Public Protection Orders) Bill Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Public Safety (Public Protection Orders) Bill Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Bill — Second Readings[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:875. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections):It is a pleasure to speak on the second readings of these cognate bills. I will just touch on the extended supervision orders in the Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Bill the bill I am responsible for. The arguments for this second reading which I support have already been espoused quite eloquently by previous speakers. But I want to say that the enhanced regime that the previous speaker Phil Goff just spoke about is about ensuring that the public are protected particularly from high-risk offenders when they finish a finite prison sentence and they do not meet the criteria for further detention under a public protection order.So the Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Bill—or the “ESO Bill” as it has come to be known—enhances the current regime in two different ways. First the amendments enable extended supervision orders to be renewed as long as they are needed—not for a 10-year finite period as has been espoused but when they are needed. Second the scope of extended supervision orders which are currently only for child sex offenders has been expanded to include adult sex offenders and very high-risk violent offenders and that is important and an issue that clearly is widely supported across this House.The Law and Order Committee received four written submissions on the bill and heard from one of the submitters. I want to thank the committee—particularly the chair Mike Sabin—for hearing these submissions and dealing with this bill in an expedient way given the urgency with which we need to pass the bill in order to meet the demand I suppose to close down this loophole which that will appear early next year.Most of the submitters supported the objective of the bill which is to protect the public from serious sexual and violent offending from a small but very dangerous group of offenders. Obviously we have heard the counterargument around the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act implications but the committee carefully considered that issue and the bill includes appropriate safeguards to mitigate those New Zealand Bill of Rights Act implications. The safeguards include orders being subject to mandatory reviews by the courts and also that the Parole Board is required to review some of the most stringent conditions every 2 years. This means that those orders are in place only for as long as is warranted by an offender’s risk of causing serious harm to the public.In the public interest clearly if offenders still pose a risk to our communities at the end of their sentence then the Department of Corrections needs that ability to be able to manage them appropriately and safely in our communities. That is what this bill does and that is why members around this Parliament are supporting this bill. It has widespread support across this Parliament and that is why I am supporting this bill.Amendments recommended by the Justice and Electoral Committee by majority agreed to.