Newman Muriel: Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Newman Muriel: Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9465] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Whip—ACT) 
: 
 I have to say that was an absolutely pathetic response from the Minister of Justice. He got up and read from some notes that somebody had given him without knowing what he was talking about. I want him to put on the record how many new staff are coming into Environmental Science and Research. We know that institute has been woefully understaffed and overstressed. People were leaving because of the stress. 
He is telling us that all crime samples will now be completed by June 2004. Can he put on the record that all methamphetamine cases will be analysed by 2004? Is he prepared to put that on the record? I know that the police will be absolutely delighted to know that an end is in sight. At the moment they ask themselves why they are doing their job why they are busting these labs when they know that they will have to wait for 2 years for results while the criminals go free and set up new labs all over the place while more methamphetamine is being put on the streets while more people are being hooked on methamphetamine and while there is more violent crime. 
It is this Minister’s Government that is responsible for all of that. Rather than giving wishy-washy hopeless responses the Minister should put on the record exactly what he means. If he cannot do that then let us ask some members of the Government to stand up and put on the record what they intend to do in this area. 
This whole area of DNA testing and solving crime goes to the very heart of what New Zealanders expect from a Government. The maintenance of law and order is a core responsibility of Government. I can tell the Minister in the chair Phil Goff that right now there are people all over this country who are afraid. They are afraid of being pushed around by thugs on the street of being burgled in their homes of being victims of home invasions and so on and now they are even more afraid that somebody down the road will get himself or herself high on P and come and do something ridiculous to them—something dangerous and horrible. The Government’s response to what is a major crisis in this country has been absolutely pathetic. [ 
Interruption 
] Mr Tamihere can laugh. He should go into Maori communities where he will find that that possibility is one of their biggest concerns yet all he does is sit there and smirk and laugh. 
To get to the point it is all very well for a Government to pass a law that makes it seem as though it is getting tough on something but this bill is incredibly complicated as other speakers who looked at it during the select committee process have said. It is terribly complicated. It should be simple and it should also be resourced properly. I want the Minister to tell us exactly what he means in terms of resourcing because what we have heard from the Government is a whole lot of wishy-washy stuff that makes it sound as if it is getting tough on crime when actually it is not. If this bill worked properly it would solve hundreds of thousands of crimes in this country. But it is not just a matter of the law; it is the resources and it is having the right number of police in the right place at the right time who are able to do the job—it is a whole raft of things. The Government may think it seems tough by passing a law but that is simply not good enough. It has to make sure that all the bits of the jigsaw puzzle are put in place so that the police can do their job effectively catch criminals and hold them to account and so that we have a sentencing regime that puts people in prison if they deserve it for the whole period of their sentence. Instead we have a hopeless Government that allows criminals to get out of prison after serving only a third of their time. We do not have a proper regime in New Zealand that gets tough on law and order. This bill could be the start of something new but I suspect that it will not be resourced properly and the police will not be able to use it properly because they will not be given the tools. 
I reiterate that DNA is an incredibly important tool. I suspect that if the police were able to go through all unsolved crimes using new DNA technology and matching samples with samples from every single prisoner in prison at the moment and samples from all the other serious offenders who have submitted DNA samples—if the police were given the money to do that—then many many serious crimes would be solved.