Goff Phil: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Goff Phil: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:487] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 That speech had the length and substance of the Bail Amendment Bill; it lacked in both categories. But the member in his brief address got the situation absolutely wrong as did the Minister in charge of the bill. The Minister said Labour was about reducing the prison population. Well I will tell him the facts which are that under Labour the prison population went up by over 3000—the biggest increase in the prison population in this country’s history—and four new prisons were opened. But then both Mr Worth and Mr Power said the intention of the 2007 amendment to the Bail Act was to reduce the prison population— 
Hon Simon Power 
: That’s not what the explanatory note says. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The explanatory note of the bill says absolutely the opposite of that. It gives the lie to the Minister’s repeated claim that that was the purpose. Let me read to him from the explanatory note of the bill in his own name. It states: “The amendments were intended to clarify the law rather than make any significant changes.” If the Minister does not believe that why did he put that statement in his legislation? What he has put there contradicts in black and white what both he and Mr Worth have just said. 
The comment was made that this is a short bill. I have no objection to legislation being short; what I object to is that this bill is entirely without substance. I say to Mr Power that this bill is simply window dressing. The Minister may say that is a political comment from the Labour Party but no I am quoting from Professor Geoffrey Hall who is the expert in New Zealand on sentencing and criminal law. He was talking about the companion bill but that comment applies to both bills. He says the stuff is already there and “It sounds to me like it’s window dressing”. That is what Professor Hall the foremost expert on New Zealand criminal law says about this Minister’s effort to demonstrate that he is doing something. 
This bill is a pathetic effort to show that the Minister is being tough on crime when by his own admission and by John Key’s own admission this legislation will at best affect a handful of people. I ask Mr Power to tell me how many people will be affected by this legislation. He will not answer that question but John Key did. John Key said it might affect 75 people. Does Mr Power know how many people are remanded into custody each year in our system? Does the Minister know that basic fact? He does not so I will tell him. The number of New Zealanders who are remanded into custody each year rather than being given bail is 15000. Mr Key says this bill might affect 75 people but we were told in the justice briefing that this measure would affect 10 people—10 beds—next year. That is 40 people over the next 4 years. So here we have this legislation which Mr Power struts into the House with and says is his top priority in criminal justice to make the country safer and it is to affect 10 people. Frankly that is pathetic as is the fact that this legislation is being put through the House under urgency. 
We want to have criminal law that is carefully considered. That means law that is considered by a select committee. That happens with regard to all legislation relating to criminal justice. Every bill relating to criminal justice goes to a select committee because when it comes to criminal law we want to have proper scrutiny and we want to get the legislation right the first time around. Every New Zealander has the right to be heard on important legislation. This bill will affect 10 people in the next year but Mr Power as Minister contrary to what he has said in the speeches he has given in this House year after year is prepared to ram this measure through and to deny the opportunity for ordinary New Zealanders and experts like Professor Hall to have their voices heard. I know why the Minister does not want this bill to go to a select committee. It is because a select committee would reveal that this measure is flimflam that it is window dressing and that it has no impact. 
If the Minister wants to do something that has an impact then he knows he can go to the Governor-General today and ask him to bring into effect the 2007 amendment to the Sentencing Act which would require a minimum detention period of two-thirds of a sentence before parole is granted. Will the Minister do that? That would affect hundreds of people; it would keep criminals locked up for a lot longer than they are at present. The Minister does not need legislation to do that. He could do it tomorrow; he could do it today. But that would have substance and a cost so this Minister this show pony struts into the House to say this bill is his big deal in criminal justice and it will affect 10 people in the next year. Well frankly that is farcical. 
You see the problem is that the National Government has to be seen to be doing something in its first 100 days. It said it would make an impact. The difficulty is that after 9 years in Opposition National gets elected and whether one is talking about the economy or law and order it has no plan. It has no plan and it has no policy. So we get the show pony coming into the House with this piece of window dressing that does absolutely nothing. 
Now Mr Power ironically is changing the legislation to put back in place the legislation that I passed in 2000 which National opposed then. It opposed that legislation in 2000 and 2002. Now that legislation the bail law did toughen the situation up. It resulted in an extra 2000 people a year being locked up. 
Hon Simon Power 
: Hang on what’s happened since then? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I tell Mr Power since he has asked me that what has happened is that we have significantly reduced the rate of offending while people are on bail. The Minister’s own explanatory note sets that out. The Minister says Labour was soft on law and order and it did not make any difference in this area. I tell Mr Power that between 2004 and 2008 the latest figures that I can give the Minister the number of people who were remanded into custody went up by 30 percent. That Minister is trying to tell the House there was something inherently wrong with our bail legislation and we were soft on law and order. But the number of people who were remanded pending trial went up by 30 percent. That 30 percent figure is 2½ times more than the fast rate of increase in sentenced inmates. We did that yet this National Minister comes in and says National is going to make a real difference with legislation that will increase the need for remand beds in the next year by 10! 
I tell Mr Power that that is a joke—an absolute joke. We will get to the sentencing legislation in the next bill and I say that is a joke as well because Mr Power knows that it makes no difference. Professor Hall said that. This bill makes scarcely any difference. Just as the Minister said that the 2007 amendment to the Bail Act does not substantially change the test for denying bail this bill does not change the test. So this Minister after the National Party campaigned on law and order and how big a difference it would make comes into this Parliament with no plan to do anything substantial. He refuses to implement the legislation that requires two-thirds of the minimum sentence to be served before parole is granted when he can do that right now and he brings us two pieces of flimflam that will not make a single New Zealander feel safer in his or her bed tonight or next year. 
That is a disgrace. That shows just how shallow the incoming National Government is. It has had 9 years to prepare for what it would do to make New Zealand safer and it brings into the House today two bills that by National’s own admission will not make a difference. The Government brings this legislation in under urgency denying the right of New Zealanders to examine that legislation because it knows that on any examination it will be shown to be flimflam.