Ross Jami-Lee: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 10 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2189. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 I am very pleased to stand in support of the Bail Amendment Bill. It is another day when the National-led Government is bringing to the House another piece of legislation to clamp down on crime and to do what we can to put victims at the heart of the justice system. New Zealanders will see this Government as bringing another bill to the House that will assist them to remain safe in their homes and on the streets.  
We have no shame in saying that we support victims. We have no shame in saying that we think that the justice system needs to be moved further towards the rights of victims and away from the rights of those who commit crimes. We are proud to say that we passed 18 new laws in the last Parliament to clamp down on crime and get tougher in the law and order area. I am particularly pleased to say that through changes this Government has brought through my community my area of Counties Manukau is much safer due to the 300 police officers who were brought on to the streets of Counties Manukau. Six hundred were brought on to the streets nationwide and Counties Manukau is a safer area because of it. 
Today we are looking at making some changes to bail and I am looking forward to this bill going through to the Law and Order Committee where we can consider it further. The prime area that has been touched on and that is in the bill is the issue of bail and reversing the burden of proof. In most cases at the moment if the prosecution opposes bail then it must prove that the defendant poses a risk of absconding interfering with witnesses or evidence or offending on bail. In these cases the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. We want to change that. The current Act that is in place at the moment imposes a reverse burden of proof on defendants charged with a specified series of sexual or violent offences when they have a previous conviction for one of those offences. The reverse burden of proof means that in order to be granted bail the defendant has to demonstrate that they do not pose a risk to the public or to their trial. This makes it harder in marginal cases for those defendants to get bail and more likely that they will be held in custody on remand until trial.  
We want to extend that reverse burden of proof to a number of other crimes. The bill will reverse the burden of proof in bail decisions for those charged with serious class A drug offences such as manufacturing or dealing in P. I have the Minister of Customs sitting in front of me. He has extolled to the House the problems of P in the community and anything we can do to get tougher on those who are involved in the P business is a welcome move. I also note that Mike Sabin is in the House today. Those in Northland know of the great work he has done in the community dealing with P and helping those who have struggled with P. As more than a third of defendants arrested for serious class A drug offences offend whilst on bail it is good that we are making changes in this area to include those types of offences in the reverse burden of proof regime.  
The reverse burden of proof in bail decisions for defendants charged with murder will also be changing. Murder is the most serious offence in New Zealand law but it currently is subject to the same test for bail as other less serious offences. We are going to change that as well to reflect the seriousness of the charge.  
There have been a few comments this afternoon about whether the bail changes that are coming through this bill will actually give people a reason to not offend whilst on bail. I am quite aware of a situation we had in South Auckland a few years ago where an Indian bottle shop owner was murdered in his bottle shop. There were six offenders in the case some of whom were later convicted of murder. One of the offenders who was actually convicted of aggravated robbery was found to have offended whilst on bail. He obtained firearms he stole cars and he led the police on a high-speed chase through South Auckland. He did all that whilst he was on bail. He received an extra 9 months in prison for those additional offences. I raise this because it highlights an example where there are people and communities around New Zealand—real examples; in this case the South Auckland community—where people can highlight the fact that there are offenders out there who offend whilst on bail. We should make it more difficult for them to do that.  
The statistics show that the percentage of offenders who offend on bail increased from 15.7 percent in 2004 to 18.4 percent. That is going in absolutely the wrong direction. Overall an average of 17.4 percent of defendants charged with an offence between 2004 and 2009 who had spent time on bail were convicted of committing an offence on bail. We need to make changes in this area. This bill does that. This is a continuation of National’s desire to rebalance the justice system more in favour of victims and make sure that there are appropriate punishments for those who commit crimes in the community. I am looking forward to this bill being considered further by the select committee.