Phil Goff once quoted me
I did a vanity Google on my name in Hansard last night. I know Clark once referred to me (but not by name) in 2004 in relation to an issue around parliamentary staff so didn’t expect any hits. But there were two – the traditional thanks from Mark Blumsky in his maiden speech but also a couple of years ago by Phil Goff in defence of the Government’s bill dealing with issues around the age of consent. No-one mentioned this at the time so I was genuinely surprised. Goff said:
Mr Ryall raised the question of a particular change that will be made. Under the previous law, if a person was 1 day over the age of 21, there was no defence at all, even if one could demonstrate that one had reasonably and genuinely believed that a person was not under age—say, one had asked for her driver’s licence, had checked it, and it had stated that that was so. Unfortunately, there is the situation—and I think Mr Mark agrees with me on this—where some young women, some girls out there, can look a lot older than 16 and do use false identification. If a person acts in good faith, but is conned by an under-age person, why should there be no defence to protect that person? Of course there should be a defence, and it should not be arbitrarily restricted to those who are under the age of 21.
I have no better authority on that than David Farrar, who is the co-chairman of the liberal group within the National Party—with Katherine Rich, I think—a former staffer of Don Brash, a long-time member and supporter of National, and a worker in the office of Leader of the Opposition, who made the point that I have just made. It is nonsense to say that a person who is 21 years and 1 day old has no defence at all, if the young woman concerned looked like she was 18 and presented the person concerned with a driver’s licence that stated that. That is why the old law did not make sense—not just the fact that the arbitrary threshold was contrary to our New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
If I recall correctly the law change didn’t go through.