7. Question No. 7—JusticeHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of JusticeQuestion No. 7—Justice7. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Justice: Does she agree with independent victims' advocate Ruth Money who says that discounts to sentences for convicted criminals are getting out of control" and how does allowing for sentence discounts to reach 73 percent fit with her stated pledge to be "victim-centric"?Hon DAVID PARKER (Attorney-General) on behalf of the Minister of Justice: I agree that perpetrators of crime need to be held to account and the more serious the crime the greater the punishment justified. I note that the Government has not lowered any penalties for individual offences since we have been in office. Decisions on sentences are matters for the judiciary. There are no central sentencing guidelines because the last National-ACT Government axed them and the Sentencing Council. I respect Ruth Money for her advocacy and I agree with her statement from 21 April in relation to a new bill the Government will be introducing to expand victim rights when she said "get in behind this". On being victim-centric the Government is proud of its track record. Since National left office our Government has tripled funding for victim assistance schemes doubled the funding for victim support passed the sexual violence Act to improve outcomes for victims and is establishing pilots to improve victims' safety and ensure they're heard in bail decisions and to strengthen support for child victims of sexual violence.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does she think that Parliament should not be able to amend the Sentencing Act in response to what MPs on this side of the House at least regard as a widespread sense across the country that there are insufficient consequences for crime?Hon DAVID PARKER: I like every other politician in this House respect the sovereignty of this Parliament to change the law. In respect of prison populations New Zealand's prison population is similar to Australia's and is higher than in England and Wales Portugal Spain France Korea Canada Austria Germany Iceland and Japan. We do not have low rates of imprisonment in New Zealand. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does she agree with National's policy to take more than $6 million a year currently sent to Harry Tam and others to produce written cultural reports and to redirect it to provide extra funding to help the victims of crime? Hon DAVID PARKER: Those reports are prepared under section 27 of the Sentencing Act 2002 which is very old legislation and they can be requested by a court where an offender is appearing for sentence. The person or people from whom those reports are sought is not controlled by Government; that's controlled by the courts in those court processes. That said the Minister of Justice is on record in her concern for that cost centre growing and has asked the Ministry of Justice to look at it. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is she comfortable with life-long Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam boasting on his website that defendants have received sentence discounts of up to 35 percent because of factors raised in his company's cultural reports and inviting people to contact him then for a quote?Hon DAVID PARKER: As I said in response to the last supplementary question the Minister has asked the Ministry of Justice to review changes in practice. When section 27 of the Sentencing Act was introduced I'm advised that those reports were normally verbal. There's become a habit where they are becoming expensive written reports. There is a question as to whether that is being appropriately controlled and therefore the Minister has asked the Ministry of Justice to look into the matter.Hon Paul Goldsmith: When she said in her stand up on Sunday of Chris Luxon "He's talking about being tough on crime soft on crime. We don't talk about those things. We talk about what works." was she thinking about the issue from the perspective of the victims of crime and if so can she understand that the victim of a serious assault or a rape might not think this system is working when their attackers receive only home detention?Hon DAVID PARKER: When she was reflecting on whether National is tough on crime she was reflecting on the fact that between 2009 and 2013 30 police stations closed police funding was frozen relative to inflation and they defunded the Police which is why police numbers fell under their watch."