SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) Link to this
I rise on behalf of the National Party in support of the Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill. I was a member of the Government Administration Committee at the time when it considered this bill, and I say there were a number of reasons why this legislation was deemed to be necessary. The most compelling reason for me was the advance, I guess one could say, in technology—such as modern cellphones, with their capacity to record visual images—and the growth in the exploitive use of that technology by some people. It was therefore deemed necessary to modernise the legislation with regard to intimate visual recording. The committee listened to a number of submissions on that. Certainly, we took advice from the Chief Censor of Film and Literature on what he deemed to be harmful—and otherwise—to people’s privacy. We listened to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has a view on these things, and we had various advisers from other ministries. For that reason, the National Party is in total support of this action.
I guess the most compelling thing for me, from memory, was the fact that people who possess these pieces of modern technology could exploit people on a range of fronts, including for financial gain, by threatening—or using other types of blackmail—to post intimate scenes on the Internet or to distribute the material in other ways. No one would ever want to have that imposed on himself or herself. Of course, most of the surreptitious visual recordings are of persons in intimate circumstances where they would reasonably expect to have a high degree of privacy. The recording could be, for example, in children’s changing sheds, or of various other private circumstances that people might find themselves in.
The Minister in the chair, the Hon Clayton Cosgrove, is supposedly a Minister who supports the bill. He has a certain view on various MPs’ attire and suchlike, which could be described as falling under the ambit of this legislation. I am not sure whether I will participate in any of the debate around that, but I am sure that he will take a call and explain some of those visual signs, or the intimate visual recordings he has in his possession at this point in time. I challenge him to do so in his supporting speech to the Committee on the bill.
It was interesting, when we were listening to the various submitters, to hear the wide range of views on what people think is an intimate recording and what is not, and what should be acceptable in a liberal society and what should not. Some put forward the notion that perhaps our laws are old-fashioned or out of date, not because of the technology but because society has moved on. Well, I could not have disagreed more strongly with that. Some things are right and some things are wrong, and I guess there will always be a debate about the boundary between what is right and what is wrong. But in my view, this circumstance was black and white, even if the images were filmed in colour. There were no grey areas for me. The fact is that it is wrong to film people in a compromised position without their consent, and then to use that recording in a way that those people would never have intended, had they known they were being filmed and that the film would be distributed.
So National supports the bill. I do not know that there is a hell of a lot more I can say about the fact that this is good legislation with regard to trying to catch up with those who are causing a problem in this area.
DIANNE YATES (Labour) Link to this
I thank Shane Ardern, the chair of the Government Administration Committee. As the previous chair, I know that this Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill came out of an inquiry the committee had, and that it was a promise of the Minister of Justice at the time, Phil Goff, to bring in this bill.
The bill is about people taking dirty pictures in places where they are not supposed to do so, and I am really pleased that some people are already implementing this law. Our local swimming pool has signs up to say to beware of people who might be around, who might be tempted—especially with all their technology, cellphones, and stuff—to take what is now called “intimate, covert filming”. So the bill is about people taking sneaky pictures in places where they should not. I think it is very good legislation, and I thank the select committee for the work it has done on it.