Street Maryan: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16403. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): I rise to speak to the Victims of Crime Reform Bill as a relatively recent member of the Justice and Electoral Committee—in fact so recent that I was not on the select committee when this bill was first referred to it. I have been on that committee for only the best part of a year perhaps—or perhaps less than that—but that points to one of the issues that I do want to raise about this and that is the tardiness with which this bill has come to the House.It was introduced on 18 August 2011. It was then referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee and the report was presented on 27 June 2012. After the date of introduction and then of course there was the first reading it sounds to me as if the Justice and Electoral Committee proceeded in a suitably thoughtful but timely way as is the habit of the chairperson to consider this bill. The report on it was presented on 27 June 2012 and here we are on 5 March 2014. What is it I wonder that has suddenly provoked the Minister of Justice to resurrect this piece of legislation? Why has it suddenly become a priority when it has not been since 27 June 2012?Kris Faafoi: Do you have a theory?Hon MARYAN STREET: I do have a theory on this as it happens. I do have a theory. I think it has more to do with knee-jerk reactions to polls than it has to do with anything else. I think it is also to do with the things that the Minister considers important and she considers them important only when there have been dramatic andaffecting headlines in the newspaper that would cause her to say: “Gosh! Don’t I have a bill about this somewhere in my back pocket? Perhaps it’s time I brought it out because we can get a lot of sympathy votes—a lot of sympathy votes—if we start parading a piece of legislation that talks about the victims of crime.”I do not want to detract from the merit of the bill at all. We support it. It has some very good measures in it and as other legislation in this area has done it incrementally improves the response of our judicial system and our court processes to addressing the needs of the victims of crime. But I do wonder whether this Government is ever motivated by anything other than cynicism—anything other than simply putting its finger in the wind trying to find out which way the polls are blowing what are the critical issues and then suddenly deciding: “Gosh! It’s time we rescued this from the bottom of the Order Paper because then we can make a fanfare about all the things that we have done for the victims of crime.”One is inclined to say “5 long years” about this because in fact it comes out of work that was originally done by the Labour Government in 2007 when the select committee at the time decided to do a review and an inquiry into victims of crime and the assistance that they receive. The National Party took that and made fun of it boycotted its activities and poured scorn on it. But in fact it now has the temerity to pull it out of the bag—out of Minister Collins’ handbag—and present it now in advance of an election simply so that first of all National can get a sympathy vote and support from people who have been victims of crime. That is perhaps the worst form of cynicism that a Government can display.Secondly this is so that it can parade to the electorate that it is being strong on law and order because one can bet one’s bottom dollar that law and order is starting to emerge again on the National Party’s polling radar as an issue of importance.Kris Faafoi: That old chestnut.Hon MARYAN STREET: So that old chestnut as my colleague says is being trotted out once more in advance of an election. I wish that things were not thus but they are. I have to say that the Minister of Justice who is in charge of this bill is probably the supreme master—second only to Nick Smith I imagine—for escalating issues in response to polling and to some external driver rather than anything internal like thinking that this is the right thing to do. Nick Smith has started to behave in his typically manic way around housing and housing affordability only because it is high up on the National Party’s polling radar. National knows finally—after 5 long years—that housing affordability is a critical issue. Well this is getting the same litmus test as that.Although it is a shame that this is the kind of thing that motivates the Government can I say that as a relative newcomer to the Justice and Electoral Committee I have had a look at the report of the select committee I have had a look at the notes surrounding this bill and we will support it. It does the kinds of things that we prepared the Government to do right back in 2007. It was introduced in 2011 4 years on from the 2007 work of the select committee and now in 2014 it is finally coming to fruition. Thank you.