Worth Richard: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
Worth Richard: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:20963] 
Dr RICHARD WORTH (National—Epsom) 
: 
 There is a race on at the moment. It is a race between the Government and the Court of Appeal because the Court of Appeal is hearing the very issues that gave rise to this legislation. After a quick flick through the  
New Zealand Herald 
 this morning I see that what is going on in the Court of Appeal is being reported. The argument that the Government lawyers are advancing is that there should be no compensation in cases of this kind; that it should be enough that a declaration is made that a particular prisoner’s rights have been offended. 
I made comment last night when we were talking about Part 1 about the seriousness of what the Government is doing in constitutional terms. It is of course worse than that because both the paper this morning and the Associate Minister of Justice last night indicated that whatever the Court of Appeal decides will be captured in this legislation. 
We heard the most amazing comment last night from a party that is supporting this legislation. That was when the Green MP Mr Locke rose to his feet and said these memorable words: “This is a bad bill but the Greens are going to support it.” How unprincipled is that? “This is a bad bill but the Greens are going to support it.” 
He is in good company in thinking that this is a bad bill. The National Party on whose behalf I am speaking at the moment and United Future New Zealand First and ACT similarly judge that it is a bad bill and we are voting against it. 
But even within the Labour camp all is not well. I was looking at a newspaper report of 10 February. Probably if there is a competent lawyer on the Labour benches it is Russell Fairbrother. Currently he is tasked to be the private secretary—without pay and without position—to the Attorney-General. His task is to support Government policy. His task in a select committee context is to support Government policy but could he? No he could not. He made clear his concerns to the media and they were reported in this way: “Government MP Russell Fairbrother has labelled his Justice Minister’s prisoner compensation bill a ‘lottery’ for victims and suggested principles not emotion were needed ‘to guide us through this mess’.” Then he made another comment. I am a member of the select committee; I heard these comments. He said: “ ‘What worries me about this bill is that it makes a lottery so that some people who deserve it get compensated and others who deserve it don’t.’ ” 
I would like to explain to members of the House and to those who may be listening why National opposes this bill. This bill is all about giving prisoners who are in a harsh regime substantial compensation payments. It is about giving them money for hurt feelings. It is about giving them money in circumstances where their liberty was taken away because they had been misbehaving in prison. 
The Government’s plan is to compensate them and we have heard some very specious reasons advanced by the Minister as to why as a matter of international law New Zealand should do that. Well the Minister is wrong and he has been wrongly advised. New Zealand is completely performing its international obligations at present. We are a party to two relevant conventions that we have signed and ratified; we are a party to two international treaties and we have made it clear in both those treaties that there will be the rare class of case where on an ex gratia basis if a prisoner’s rights have been grossly abused compensation will be forthcoming. The law calls those payments ex gratia payments. They do not arise as a result of the pursuit of legal remedies. Instead they are payments made in the context of our international obligations. So if one looks for example at the New Zealand reservation to article 14 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment one sees that we accept that there is a very limited class of case where such payments should be made. But the Government will go much further than that; it will set up a statutory framework for prisoners to sue and potentially receive massive amounts of money.