Goff Phil: Sentencing (Community Sentencing to Fit the Crime) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Goff Phil: Sentencing (Community Sentencing to Fit the Crime) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19279] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 The Government will be opposing this bill. Normally in Government we have some sympathy for Opposition members who without the resources of drafting and of policy advice cannot always be expected to get a bill absolutely right. But that is no excuse for this bill which would be one of the most shocking examples of inept incompetent inconsistent inaccurate and downright dishonest legislation that I have ever seen—and I have been here for a while to judge a number of members’ bills. This one is an absolute shocker. 
Muriel Newman began her speech by claiming that the Sentencing Act took away the judge’s power to determine an offender’s sentence and handed it to the probation service and the Parole Board. That is simply not true. Under the Sentencing Act judges sentence offenders and the Department of Corrections administers those sentences just as they did under the previous law. But having said something that was not true Muriel Newman then stated later in the bill that she wanted to implement what she condemned at the beginning of her speech. In fact this bill would allow a probation officer who is supervising a community work sentence to add time to that sentence for non-compliance without reference to the court. That would pass over sentencing powers from judges to probation officers which is the exact opposite of what she said when she began her speech. 
Then—if one tells a whopper one tells a big one—Muriel Newman said that this Government had ignored the 1999 referendum on law and order. Now that is absolute nonsense. In 1999 92 percent of New Zealanders voted for a tougher line to be taken on law and order. That referendum was effectively a referendum on 9 years of the previous National Government’s incompetence and inaction. There were 9 years of police cuts. The very thing that the National Party now says that it is against it did for 9 years while in Government. Because of the INCIS blunder—the biggest blunder by any Government in recent history—National members were going to cut 500 police officers from the police rolls after the 1999 election. We have evidence of that. That is duplicity that is dishonest and that is just—I cannot use the “h” word in this House but I think Madam Speaker knows what I mean. We had 9 years of record high crime but we had absolute inaction on that from the previous National Government. 
Well we have turned that around with the Sentencing Act—an Act that for the first time does not talk about getting tough; it does get tough. It puts away the worst murderers in this country for a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. The previous National Government said it would get tough but did nothing. We have bail laws that state that if a person has a track record of serious offending and has continued to offend while on bail previously that person will be denied bail. Yes that has increased by a very large percentage the number of people who are held in custody while they are awaiting their court case but that is done for the safety of the community and I make absolutely no apology for that. We have a Parole Act that states that the first thing the Parole Board should look at is the safety of the community. That is its paramount consideration. We did that. National talked about it and did nothing and the ACT party was an absolute apologist for the last 3 years of that failed National Government. Perhaps ACT has recognised that because it is now fighting like cats and dogs with the National Party. If National cannot form a coalition in Opposition what sort of coalition could it form to create a Government? 
Muriel Newman then had the effrontery to talk about victims being sidelined by the sentencing laws. I point out that for the first time the Sentencing Act increased the role of the victim in the sentencing process. The Parole Act increased the victim’s role in parole and release decisions. We passed the Victims’ Rights Act and that Act is the first time since the last Labour Government that we have had legislation put in place to enhance the role of victims.