Beaumont Carol: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16397. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour): I rise to speak along with my colleagues in support of the Victims of Crime Reform Bill in the second reading. This bill as others have said is a step forward albeit incrementally. This bill has been a long time in gestation shall we say—and I will come back to that in a minute—but certainly there is no sense that any of the reforms in this bill will be harmful. They will improve the situation for victims of crime to a greater or lesser extent.As my colleague Andrew Little has said however a future Labour Government will want to look at changes that are more than just incremental. There is a need for victims to have a greater role in the criminal justice process because there is a lack of a visible complaints process at the moment and a lack of oversight of victims’ rights. As we would all agree in this House victims of crime did not ask to be put in that situation. They are not responsible for that situation. They often have to go through very gruelling processes and we would want to support them. In fact it is fair to say that the changes that have been put in place for victims of crime have actually all happened under Labour Governments so it is important that all those who get into the rhetoric of being tough on crime and all of those things actually look at the facts.This particular bill the Victims of Crime Reform Bill actually arose following an inquiry that the Labour Government of the time put in place. It was actually the Justice and Electoral Committee chaired by Lynne Pillay that did an inquiry into victims’ rights in 2007 and highlighted some of the issues that are now being addressed in this bill. She noted at the time—and I think that it is actually quite an important point to put on the table—the need for a bipartisan approach on the issue of the interests of victims of crime. I think that is a point that is well worth thinking about. Certainly tonight I am sure we will find across this House agreement for the changes that are in this bill.You would not think that caring for victims of crime was a priority as those across the other side of the House are saying given the way this bill has gone through this House. This is another thing that is disappointing. In fact I had almost forgotten that I had spoken on the first reading of this bill which took place in October 2011. That is right; October 2011 was when the first reading of this bill took place after being introduced in August of that year. It was then referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee which presented a report back in June 2012. Since that time this bill about helping victims of crime has languished on the Order Paper so it does not actually give a real sense of any real priority. There are a number of pieces of legislation—Tim Macindoe: I think the member has the date wrong.CAROL BEAUMONT: Is that right?Tim Macindoe: I think so.CAROL BEAUMONT: Well I will check that. But anyway we get a sense of what the Government’s priorities are that a bill that was introduced—and this is correct I say to the whip across the House—in August 2011 and referred to the select committee in October of that year is having a second reading—Tim Macindoe: The House wasn’t sitting because there was an election campaign happening.CAROL BEAUMONT: There has been quite some time since that election. However it is not the only example of things that should have been a priority that have been delayed by this Government. Let me give you another one. What about legislation to try to restrict the activities of those who prey on families vulnerable families by predatory lending practices—those people also known as loan sharks? The Government was going to get tough on them in 2011 as well. There is still no legislation through thisHouse on that issue either. It says a lot. Who is it whom this Government governs for? Well it is not the victims of crime and it is not the people being harmed by loan sharks. Those people are often in low-income areas. Truck shops—if you happen to see them in low-income areas you will know the damage they do. That is another piece of legislation that has languished after a very long process to even get it introduced into the House. What I am asking is who it is whom this Government prioritises. Well it is certainly its corporate mates and not ordinary New Zealanders and that is something that will be very different under a Labour Government.The legislation itself actually does some things that are useful. It strengthens the existing general provisions. It expands the rights of victims in serious offences. It gives victims more opportunity to be involved in criminal justice processes and ensures that they are better informed of their rights and it increases the accountability and responsiveness of Government agencies that are providing services to victims of crime. So that is useful. But as my colleague Andrew Little said there is more that needs to be done and we would take bolder steps.Our adversarial criminal system does not really serve the interests of victims well and it is possible to make modifications that do not damage the fundamental nature of that system. Certainly there are issues like advocates for the victim which would not violate the balance inherent in the adversarial system but would give greater protection to victims of crime and greater support to them. Another issue is around providing greater support for and recognition of Victim Support which does a good job with very limited resources. These are some of the areas that this bill does not go near and that need to be addressed.I want to move on to the issue of a particular group of victims of crime and that is those who are victims of sexual violence. There have been some horrific examples in recent months. There has been a lot of coverage in the media. There has been a lot of public outcry quite rightly. There was a series in theSunday Star-Times called “1 in 100” because 90 percent of sexual offences go unreported. Of those that are reported about 10 percent actually lead to a conviction. The victims of sexual violence are among those who have the hardest time in the criminal justice system because of the nature of the crime committed against them and because often they are the key witness as well as the victim of that crime.What is the Government doing? Well actually the Government is doing nothing. There are things that should be done immediately which include support services for those who have been victims of sexual violence and funding those organisations properly. That could be done now while the select committee does the work of looking at sustainable funding. We do not have to wait until the outcome of that select committee work to provide some interim support now. What about rape prevention education? Less than 50 percent of the schools in Auckland have any sort of rape prevention education. It would really make a difference. If we could reduce the level of sexual violence in this country which is very high and if we could make sure that issues like respect in relationships healthy relationships and consent are issues that we deal with and have a culture of change about then that would make a difference. That would reduce the number of victims of sexual violence. But the Government is doing nothing to deal with those issues.There are also changes that could be made now to the way that our police officers deal with sexual violence and sexual crimes. There are things about them playing a greater role in prevention. We are still awaiting results from the review of the way that they handled the Roast Busters case but certainly there is a need for improved behaviour and work by the police. This is not to undermine the fact that there are some good initiatives there.There are changes that need to be made in terms of the Crimes Act—for example issues around the legal definition of consent and looking at that whole issue. But I know that most people listening to this will know that the victims of sexual violence have a very very hard road in dealing with the crimes against them and dealing with the aftermath of them. The costs—the personal costs—of those crimes on the individual on their family and on our communities are huge. We need to make sure that we are doing more.It is also the economic costs of those sorts of crimes. There are estimates that each incident of sexual violence costs the country $72000. It makes sense for us to be doing more in this area but the Government is failing to act.