Minister Says Removing Paedophile Name Suppression a Knee ‘Jerk Reaction’

After refusing leave yesterday for the Rt Hon Winston Peters, the Member for Northland, to introduce a Bill removing the right of paedophiles to name suppression, Social Development Minister Anne Tolley has today described that Bill as “a knee-jerk reaction”.

“I never thought I’d see the day when a National Party Minister would be so soft on crime and the causes of crime, that she would block victims from having the right to lift paedophile name suppression,” says New Zealand First’s Spokesperson for Social Development Darroch Ball.

“Especially when I asked Minister Tolley whether she would support the Rt Hon Winston Peters’ Criminal Procedure (Removing PaedophileName Suppression) Amendment Bill, right off the back of a question that asked her about improving statutory child protection.

“And when a Minister uses the expression ‘a knee-jerk reaction’ we have to follow that up by asking, ‘from what?’

“There’s something not right with this government in that it is willing to block victims from having the right to lift name suppression on paedophiles. Something Minister Tolley, as the Minister of Social Development and a former Minister of Police, ought to have regard for,” says Mr Ball.

ENDS

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