John MacDonald: Fix the Clean Slate law or get rid of it?

How do you feel about people being allowed to hide their convictions?

There are two ways of doing it. 1) Just don’t tell people about it. Or use the clean slate legislation, which wipes your record clean if you’ve had no convictions for seven years.

If you’ve been to prison for your offences though, you don’t qualify.

Concerns about the legislation are being raised after an Auckland man with historical indecency convictions was able to pass multiple police checks, become registered as a teacher, and abuse nine girls.

Which has law expert Bill Hodge saying that the law needs an overhaul.

But I think we would be better off getting rid of it. Because the bigger picture here is whether we think someone should be able to hide their convictions after a certain period of time so they can get on with their life without it hanging over them.

I think there should be complete transparency, and here’s why:

If you’re an employer, under our health and safety laws, you are responsible for the safety of anyone and everyone working for you. To do that, you need to be confident that you are bringing people into your business or your organisation who are of, what they call, “good character”.

How can you do that if there are things about someone you don’t know? Things like past criminal convictions?

Remembering too that the convictions we’re talking about here aren’t things like murder. But let’s say, for example, someone was a menace on the roads when they were younger and had numerous convictions because of that.

Seven years down the track, would you want to know about that if you were looking at giving them a job? I would.

What about someone who had convictions for violence that weren’t quite serious enough for them to end up in prison? Someone who had a history of going out on a Saturday night and getting lippy in the pub?

Seven years down the track, would you want to know about that if you were looking at giving them a job? I would.

Dishonesty convictions? You’d want to know about those too, wouldn’t you?

Imagine how better that would be for the person with the convictions, as well? Everything would be out in the open, there’d be no fear of people finding out through word-of-mouth and the problems that would create.

I’m all for giving people a second chance, but only if all of the cards are on the table. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
How do you feel? How do you feel about people
being allowed to hide their convictions? There are two ways
of doing at One just don't tell people about it,
and two you can use the clean slate legislation which
wipes your record clean if you've had no convictions for
seven years. If you've been deprisoned by the way for

(00:34):
your offenses, hard luck, you don't qualify. But concerns about
the clean slate legislation are being raised today after an
aucklandman with historical indecency convictions was able to pass multiple
police checks, become registered as a teacher and abuse nine girls.
And that's got law expert Bill Hodge say, well that

(00:57):
can happen, then the law needs an overhaul.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
The statute does need to be overhauled broad up to date.
It's based on the nineteen sixty one Crimes Act in
terms of the specified offenses and the nineteen oh eight
Crimes Act of all things. You just need to bring
it up to deep.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But you know what, I think. I
think we would be better off getting rid of it
because the bigger picture here is whether we think someone
should be able to hide their convictions after a certain
period of time so they can get on with your
life without it hanging over them. And I don't think

(01:35):
they should be able to I think there should be
complete transparency. And here's why. If you're an employer under
the health and safety laws, you are responsible for the
safety of anyone and everyone working for you. And to
do that, you need to be confident that you're bringing
people into your business or your organization who are of

(01:57):
what they call good character. And how can you possibly
do that if there are things about someone you don't know,
things like past criminal convictions. Remembering too, that the convictions
we're talking about here aren't things like murder. But let's say,
for example, let's say someone was a menace on the
roads when they were younger and had numerous convictions because

(02:19):
of that seven years down the track. Would you want
to know about that if you were looking at giving
them a job. I would. What about someone who had
convictions for violence that weren't quite serious enough for them
to end up in prison? You know, someone who had
a history of going up on a Saturday night and
getting lippy in the pub seven years down the track.

(02:42):
Would you want to know about that? If you were
looking at giving them a job, I would dishonesty convictions.
You'd want to know about them too, wouldn't you? And then,
and only then would you be in a position to
make a call on whether to hire them or not.
I'm all for giving people a second chance, but only

(03:02):
if all the cards are on the table. Remember the
first several years ago when some people involved with the
wood Ends Rugby Club were upset that former All Black
Zach Guildford was being taken on as a coach. Remember
that the disgraced former All Black as he came to
be known, had all sorts of problems with drugs and alcohol,
assaulting people, stealing forty thousand dollars from his grandfather and

(03:24):
sixty thousand from a friend. Remember that. And when all
that blew up, I told the people at would end,
the people with their noses out of joint, to calm
down and to give the guy a chance. But I
did that, and the full knowledge of his passed. And
that's how I think it should be for everyone. And yes,
I know that if we didn't have the clean slate law,
if people weren't able to hide their convictions. There would

(03:47):
definitely be some employers who wouldn't want to barrow them,
but I reckon there would be plenty of others who
would who would be more than happy to give them
a go. But they would be doing that knowing the
full picture. And imagine how better that would be for
the person with the convictions. Everything would be out in
the open, there'd be no fear of peace, people finding
out about it through word of mouth and the problems

(04:09):
that would create.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
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