Dean Jacqui: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10674. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (Chairperson of the Justice and Electoral Committee): With those words echoing in my ears thank you Mr Chairman. There are many divisions across this House over a number of issues. There are some things that we all agree on however and one is that we want New Zealanders to feel safe in their communities and to feel safe in their homes together with their families. Sadly for some people this is not the reality of their lives. Family violence in this country is far too high. The Minister of Justice the Hon Amy Adams has made tackling family violence a priority for her in her time as justice Minister. Also the other issue in the justice sector that has been under review is around reducing reoffending within New Zealand prisons and the number of people who go to prison. I am going to briefly touch on both of those things.In terms of family violence early last year the Ministerial Group on Family Violence and Sexual Violence commissioned a stocktake of family and sexual violence services across all Government agencies. We should note that the Government spends around $1.4 billion each year responding to family and sexual violence issues. That is a large amount of money to spend on a number of very important programmes. The stocktake found that although a whole lot of good work was being done there is certainly room for improvement and the figures of course underline that. There is duplication of some services there is fragmentation of other services and all these things were noted. So a new family violence work programme has been under development and is developing a whole-of-Government strategy to tackle these issues and provide better services and better results for victims of family violence.So I will just run through a number of the initiatives that have been undertaken in the past financial year and are ongoing. A Chief Victims Advisor has been appointed to provide independent advice to the Government—that is an independent voice to Government on family violence. There has been a $3.6 million contract for a National Home Safety Service and that was awarded to the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges. That is being rolled out across New Zealand and that will now assist up to a thousand victims a year with better security so that they can remain in their homes and they can feel safe with a much lower risk of serious physical harm or violence.There is now new regulation to give judges better access to more information about perpetrators’ family violence history so they have the best information possible when they are making decisions. We are trialling ways where we can speed up family violence cases that are progressing through the courts. That is happening in two pilot locations. Why? Because Family Court issues need to be resolved quickly mostly for the benefit of the children involved. Police will soon start testing improved portable safety alarms and fixed alarms for high-risk victims.The Ministry of Justice is looking into how to improve the information judges receive about defendants’ health where that is relevant to bail conditions and sentencing decisions and for example alcohol and drug dependency issues. That segues quite neatly into the reducing reoffending programme which is so dear to the Minister’s heart. The Justice and Electoral Committee visited the alcohol and other drug treatment court in Waitakere. There is a trial going on into how the judicial system can better deal with people who have recidivist offences in the realms of drug and alcohol offending.The pilot that the committee attended in the Waitakere court was under Judge Tremewan and I want to acknowledge Judge Tremewan’s work in the alcohol and other drug treatment court. I want to commend her for her vision and for her passion and for her commitment to those offenders who have been referred to her court. What happens is that a recidivist drink-driver is facing charges. They apply to appear in the drug treatment court. They will be sentenced but not until they have undergone a programme of treatment. This is a great initiative. Thank you.