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Urgency for Bill monitoring criminals 'only option Govt had'

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 18 Nov 2015, 6:44AM
Justice Minister Amy Adams (NZME)

Urgency for Bill monitoring criminals 'only option Govt had'

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 18 Nov 2015, 6:44AM

Using urgency to make new laws for monitoring criminals is being defended as the only option the Government had.

Parliament passed the Bill under urgency today, bringing in parole-type monitoring for criminals convicted overseas. 

The Bill will allow parole-type monitoring to be used on convicted criminals who are deported back to New Zealand.

LISTEN: Metiria Turei speaks with Mike Hosking

Justice Minister Amy Adams is copping flack for not putting the law in place earlier and rushing it now, especially when around twenty criminals are returning to New Zealand by the end of the week.

However, she is defending herself, saying the delays were due to information not coming through from Australia.

"If I took now another 2-6 months at a Select Committee, yes we could do that. But that's more people arriving into New Zealand with serious sexual, pornography, child abuse, murder, drug charges, without the ability to have some oversight," she said.

"New Zealand found itself starting from a completely cold start, once the law was already in operation. That is not ideal, that is not the way we expect to deal with Australia, but that is the position we were in."

Labour's justice spokesperson Jacinda Ardern said the monitoring is designed to stop people reoffending, but they need more help to adjust when they've just been imprisoned, such as in a detention centre.

"Meaning that you will be monitored for longer, as a consequence, and yet you have absolutely no control over that period of incarceration."

Spokesperson for the Howard League, Canterbury University's Dr Jarrod Gilbert, agrees legislation is needed.

"There's been an anomoly in our law, in that criminals coming back from Australia don't have the same oversight as prisoners leaving prisons in New Zealand, and that needs to be corrected. It's sensible that we have provisions to monitor these people."

However, Dr Gilbert thinks the bill should be reviewed in twelve months to ensure there are no unintended consequences.

"I think the idea of a sunset clause on an urgency bill is an extremely good one. Legislation rushed through Parliament is rarely good."

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