English Bill: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
English Bill: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:21723] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 I am pleased to be able to talk on Part 7 having been a recipient of reparation. Having received those letters in the mail so long after the offence occurred that I could not remember what it was about I then received even more months later some single-figure amount. The reparation that I am talking about related to a young man who went about the Invercargill Airport car-park smashing car windows. I have to say I was reasonably impressed that someone found him that he went to a family group conference and that anything happened at all. I think the people involved deserved some credit for that. I am sure that his case was one that would have been considered when a policy for Part 7 was being considered. A lot of windows were smashed and even if that young man paid what I imagine to be several hundred dollars—maybe $400 or $500—so many windows were smashed that we were all recipients of quite a small amount of money. 
Although the detail of this provision will continue to be debated in the Committee stage I think we need to acknowledge that under the current Government no one who is involved in criminal activity feels any particular pressure or obligation to pay anything for any reason. That is why $22 million of outstanding reparations is owed to victims and that is on top of the figure that appalled me which was that there is $640 million in unpaid fines—a much larger number than it was 4 or 5 years ago and involving not only a good number of hardened criminals but tens of thousands of people. It is quite clear that the measure in Part 7 as with those in Part 6 is intended to try to turn a tide that has built up momentum and will not be turned by those particularly detailed measures. That tide is the tide of slackness and unconcern that the Government has about the effects of criminal behaviour particularly on the victims of criminal behaviour. If $22 million is owed to victims then I agree with my colleague Mr Ryall that the Government ought to be doing a great deal more to get that money. 
The problem with the reality of someone having 92 reparation orders is that it undermines the integrity of the whole system. Victims will have faith in the process only if they see it being prosecuted vigorously. In my case I was surprised that anything happened at all and it must have taken some 18 months. I would have to say that my faith in the forces of law and order would have been much greater—in fact I would have been impressed—if something had happened within a few months or even within 4 or 5 months. As it happened it took about 18 months. That is why the Government is having to run around with measures like Part 7 and previously Part 6 trying to stick its finger in the dyke and trying to bring some credibility to a system in which victims and criminals do not believe that the people who run those systems and who provide political leadership really take them seriously. 
So I suppose that it is with some grudging acceptance that we note that the Government is making some changes here. Those changes may make some difference. It is possible that some victims will get more reparation out of this measure but it is only trying to slice up in a different way the relatively small proportion of reparation orders that are actually fulfilled. People are not going to feel any overwhelming need or pressure to fulfil those orders.