Naylor Jono: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5594. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National): It is a great pleasure to rise and talk on these issues in this debate because actually this is an area that as a Government we can be really proud of in terms of the progress that we are making. It is an area in our country that we can be really glad of—that our crime is at a 35-year low. I think as we look over the last 7 years there have been some things that we can be happy about in terms of the things that we are achieving.The Better Public Services target of crime being down by 20 percent by the year 2017 is on track. We have already had a 17 to 18 percent decrease over the time period that we were aiming for so we are absolutely on target to reach that. We have identified a number of ways that we can in fact make some improvements. There are some things that this Government has done over the last number of years that are helping us to make some of those impacts. We have been very much at the forefront of ensuring for example that we are putting victims first. For a long time in New Zealand our justice system was very focused on the criminals as to a certain degree it needs to be. We need to make sure that we are addressing criminal behaviour and the like but we have not always done the best that we can by victims so this Government has been absolutely committed to ensuring that we are mindful of the needs of victims.This is a Government that in the 7 years it has been in power has put through 94 pieces of legislation across the justice area. In particular I want to point out the work that has been done with the victims of crime reform legislation and also the Harmful Digital Communications Act which are as I said earlier very much focused on delivering for victims. But there have been a number of things introduced and I want to highlight those things as we look at this sector particularly when we look at the establishment of a Chief Victims Advisor to the Government. This is the first time this has been put in place. It was advertised last month and we are hoping to make an appointment by the end of this year. Again it is something that will ensure that we are going to have victims’ needs very much at the forefront of what we are doing across this sector.We are creating a National Home Safety Service which is aiming to assist up to 400 victims of family violence a year as well as up to 600 children. We are improving judges’ access to information to ensure that they are the best informed that they can possibly be. They will have more information about the history of the perpetrators of family violence and that kind of thing so that they can make better decisions to keep victims safer.We are speeding up court cases. We are getting things going through the court system in a timely way. Again we are not drawing that out because as we know victims have that time frame of the justice system and when the wheels of justice move slowly victims face the issue of perhaps being revictimised all over again and having to live with that and not being able to move on from the trauma that they have suffered. So speeding up that court process is another important aspect of what we are doing.There are a number of other things that have been introduced. If we look at the $50 offender levy which was scoffed at by a lot of people what we have actually seen is that this has generated more than $16 million since its introduction. That has gone towards funding at least 15 new grants and services to provide key victim support services that were not previously available. If we look at this kind of approach to justice it makes a whole lot of sense. Yes perpetrators and those who have been found guilty need to be held to account. They need to be punished at different times but we all know that restitution and restoring things is a very important part of it particularly for victims. So that offender levy is a critical part going forward of what we are going to see ensuring that victims will be helped out.We are seeing an increase in the number of in-court victims’ advisers. They are being contacted by 35000 victims a year and we are seeing that sort of service increasing. We are starting to see people engage with it and I think it is providing long-term benefits for the victims of crime.It was interesting that the previous speaker David Clendon brought up the police. Well we have put more police on the beat.