Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Oh, thank you, Madam Speaker. I'd just like to calm things down a bit and stop quoting from dodgy surveys and reports which are inconclusive. I thought what I'd start with are some basic principles of sentencing, you know, and so I did a little bit of reading and I had a look at the Sentencing Act. You know, the first principle of the Sentencing Act is that the sentencing judge should "take into account the gravity of the offending in the particular case, including the degree of culpability of the offender". That sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Sentencing isn't some brightline question; it's a question of balancing the rights of the victim with the culpability of the offender. Here you go. This is section 8 of the Sentencing Act: "must take into account any particular circumstances of the offender that mean a sentence or other means of dealing with the offender that would otherwise be appropriate would, in the particular instance, be disproportionately severe". Should we throw that away? No, I don't think so. I think that's an important principle.