Nash Stuart: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Register) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11664. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Let us first put on the table that in my view sex offending against children is the ultimate betrayal of trust. It is that fundamental breaking of a social contract that exists between people who live in the community and the community itself. I actually do not think to be honest there is such a thing as a disproportionate punishment for child sex offenders but what I do want to see is money spent in a way that keeps our community safe.So what is this bill about? What it means is that all child sex offenders will have to be on this register if they are 18 years old or over and are sentenced to imprisonment. They will have to update the register annually. They will have to update the register within 72 hours of a change of details or within 48 hours prior to travel. What happens is depending on the sentence they will stay on the register for either 8 years 15 years or life. The ministries that will have access to this register are the police the Ministry of Social Development Housing New Zealand and the Department of Corrections. The reason they have access to the register is so they can manage the risk to public safety posed by known sex offenders who are living within the community. I do not think there is anyone in this House who would disagree with the intent of that in any way shape or form because it does have to be managed in the interests of public safety.According to the bill police and corrections staff will have to inform third parties where they consider it necessary to protect the safety of the community. So the police and corrections staff do have the mandate to go out to the community and say: “Be aware there is a known sex offender living at this address or living within this community.” The real concern I have about this is the fact that the police and corrections just do not have the resources to do this. What I would like to see before I support this in any way shape or form is assurance from the police that they are going to really police this legislation and manage this in a way that is going to achieve the objectives. As Darroch Ball mentioned if they do not do this and we have recidivist sex offenders living in our community with a high risk of reoffending then this bill will mean absolutely nothing. So there does have to be an absolute assurance from police and corrections staff that they are going to manage this in a way.I do have a concern that the register will be leaked. I think that is a very real concern because if we put ourselves in the situation of someone from the Police Department of Corrections Housing New Zealand or the Ministry of Social Development and we saw on the register that a known sex offender was living beside a friend of ours or beside a school it would be incredibly difficult. There would be a real moral dilemma I believe on whether to speak out or not—on whether to inform a school or a friend with children that a known sex offender was living beside them. I think the moral dilemma around how to keep such a register confidential is very real and we must understand that.The one thing that must lead policy and legislation in this House is evidence and Alfred Ngaro talked about this. If you look at my Facebook site you will see that I am no apologist for child offenders in any way shape or form but what we need to do is develop legislation that is based on good evidence. What I have read is that the evidence suggests that making public such a register actually does not do any good to the community whatsoever. It does not stop child offending in any way shape or form nor does it protect the community in a way that we all want it to. If the evidence pointed the other way—if I had evidence that said making public a register would protect our community—then I would be all for it. But the evidence I have seen says that making public a register does not in fact protect the community.Just to sum up I have absolutely no doubt that every member in this House has the safety of our community at heart. We have the victims as the No. 1 group that we want to protect and we have our communities’ safety at heart; there is no doubt about that whatsoever. But what we must do is ensure that if this bill passes there are the resources in place in the corrections system and Police to give effect to it and to make sure that our communities are safe. Thank you very much.