Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill

I move, That the Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill.

I said from this seat, about three hours ago, that I like Wednesdays. It was in the context of speaking to the memorable and historic citizenship of Samoa bill, and I reflected on many things I like about Wednesdays, including the fact that I start and end with karakia. Another thing that I like about Wednesdays is that it’s members’ day, and I am hugely honoured to be standing here for the first time moving a bill. But, as exciting as this is for me, it’s not nearly as exciting as it is for Kaylee Hill, who’s in the gallery tonight—and I’ll be speaking more about her and her friend Alex Prendergast soon. They have waited 3½ years for this day.

This morning, my day began with co-hosting with my colleague Camilla Belich a gathering of UNICEF young adults. They were encouraging all of the members of this House on a number of issues, as were the World Vision ambassadors that I also had the privilege of co-hosting four hours later on the steps of Parliament. Both of them, amongst other things, called for us as a Parliament to take serious action, more strong action, on human trafficking and on modern slavery. This bill is the first step, I hope, in that strengthening.

The TIP report—that is the Trafficking in Persons Report—is an annual report, issued by the US Department of State, assessing countries’ efforts to combat human trafficking, ranking them into tiers based on their compliance with international anti-trafficking standards. It provides detailed country summaries, including recommendations, while also serving as a tool for advocacy, accountability, and global awareness on human-trafficking issues. For 17 years, New Zealand was ranked a tier 1 country. However, in 2021, our country was downgraded to tier 2. The Government had failed to do enough to recognise and combat the growing issue while neglecting to meet our international obligations. We, therefore, need to urgently strengthen our approach to human trafficking. Now, the TIP report critiques us in three areas. The first one is that our country is currently failing to meet the prosecution requirements—simply meaning that our Government has maintained, in the views of the TIP authors, inadequate anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.

Now, this amendment bill that I’m moving tonight began in 2021, the same year as New Zealand’s downgrade, when two Rolleston high school students—Alex Prendergast and Kaylee Hill—approached their local MP, Nicola Grigg, as part of a school project that they had done when they had found an anomaly in section 98AA of the Crimes Act 1961. These are the areas of the Crimes Act under which the exploitation of labour—that is to say, domestic human slavery—would be prosecuted. They found, much to their surprise and certainly to everyone else that encountered it, that there was a discrepancy in there, whereby there was a harsher penalty available for international trafficking and human exploitation than there was domestic. Their bill proposed an alignment of those offences and of the available prosecution.

When I became an MP, it was my privilege to take that bill on, and I guess I was as surprised as anybody when it got pulled out of the biscuit tin earlier this year. On my first detailed reading of it, I realised that what we had here was not only an important piece of legislation in its own right but an opportunity to be able to do something far more significant in terms of addressing the deficiencies of our current laws as they pertain to human trafficking.

While this is an excellent starting point to meeting the recommendations made in the TIP report, it alone is not enough to reclaim our place in tier 1. Therefore, I and Kaylee have already drafted additional amendments to add to the current proposed bill, which will further address this country’s currently inadequate anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. These additional amendments will specifically address sections 98B, 98D, and 98E, and we’re looking forward to working out the full detail of those.

With an eye on the clock, I won’t take the House’s time up on this now. What I do want to do is pay credit to a number of new friends and colleagues who have provided fantastic input and counsel on this bill—it was particularly on the amendments that we have in mind but also in some companion legislation that my colleague Camilla Belich and I have begun to co-author—Rebekah Armstrong at World Vision; Natalia Szablewska, who’s a professor in law and society; Keir Duncan, a solicitor at Meredith Connell; Rebecca Kingi, who is a trafficking-in-persons specialist and ESG initiatives lead at ANZ Bank; Jacob Parry, barrister and former Crown prosecutor and partner at Meredith Connell; Clayton Walker, Crown prosecutor and partner at Elvidge’s, who is the office of the Crown solicitor at Napier; and Rebecca Thompson, Crown counsel at the Crown Law Office. Each of those people have put in a substantial amount of time in recent years and are enormously excited about the fact that this bill is under way this evening.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): I’ll just remind the member, the House can go until five past—

💬 Hon Member: You can take your full time.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): —though you can take a full call.

Oh, it’s OK—this bill will be running for several months, but thank you, Mr Speaker.

Because this bill began with Kaylee and Alex, and because Kaylee has done so much research to date and continues to, I’ve given her the final word, and so I quote: “As a country that prides itself on values of fairness, justice, and human dignity, we have a moral and legal obligation to not only meet but exceed our commitments to combating human trafficking. The reality is that human trafficking thrives in the shadows, and without a steadfast commitment to comprehensive prevention, protection, and prosecution efforts, vulnerable individuals will continue to suffer in silence without receiving adequate justice under our system. Our response to trafficking is not just a matter of international ranking or diplomatic standing; it is a reflection of our national identity. To ensure a future where all individuals are free from exploitation and harm, we must embrace the urgency of this issue, acting decisively and with compassion to fulfil our responsibility to not only our own citizens but our global community.” I commend this bill to the House.

This debate is interrupted and set down for resumption next sitting day. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 9.59 p.m.