Pillay Lynne: Legal Services Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Pillay Lynne: Legal Services Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7393] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) 
: 
 I acknowledge the previous speaker Chester Borrows in this House again. He is an excellent chair of the Justice and Electoral Committee particularly relating to the Legal Services Amendment Bill. I think it is always a pleasure to stand in the House or sit on a select committee where all members support the legislation. Sadly that does not happen all the time. For members on this side of the House so much of the legislation we see before the House is absolutely unpalatable and it is impossible for us to do anything in good faith but oppose it for the sake of the people of New Zealand. But obviously this bill is not one of those cases. 
This bill is actually about compassion. As other speakers have acknowledged it came about and was put on the Order Paper in very very sad circumstances. I recall at the time that Annette King requested very urgently from the Secretary for Justice a report which examined what changes were needed to ensure that victims were treated in a caring and compassionate way. That was I think a very succinct way of putting what we needed to see in legislation to ensure that victims were not re-victimised by a process at a very stressful and distressing time of their lives. 
This bill as other speakers have said ensures that when victims of crime attend a Parole Board hearing or a coronial inquest they are not subject to financial eligibility testing. It also enables the Legal Services Agency to write off legal aid debt at any time during the proceedings rather than at the end of the proceedings. That goes a long way towards taking off a lot of that pressure. Obviously at difficult times through proceedings for victims to have to have the added burden of financial anxiety and stress is not conducive to their good health and it certainly gives them no support. It creates a lot more stress in their lives. There is also a new regulatory power to enable the Governor-General to exempt particular classes of people from financial eligibility tests and repayment conditions. 
The first reading of the bill was on 1 July and I think that the process in the select committee was very efficient. I acknowledge in this House the support that we had as we always do. We have fantastic support on the Justice and Electoral Committee and I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge the people who came forward and gave submissions in support of this bill. For those people who had had very painful experiences this situation—I think we could call it an unintended consequence—needed to be rectified. They along with us were very pleased to see that happen. In terms of applications for legal aid for parole hearings the stress on victims of crime is something that no one should diminish or underestimate. It is an incredibly stressful time for people. 
I will also take this opportunity to talk a little about some of the other changes that have delivered improvements for victims. They happened under the Labour Government and happily they are still in place. The Sentencing Act 2002 is in place. I know that the Sentencing Council has gone and I know that I would be doing Paul Quinn an absolute disservice if I did not mention that. The Sentencing Council would have delivered consistency in sentencing and would have been of great benefit to victims. The Sentencing Act which introduced the presumption in favour of reparation and resulted in that sentence being used more frequently delivered a lot for victims. 
The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 ensured that victims of inmates were awarded compensation and that victims could claim against that compensation. The Evidence Act has provided for the needs of vulnerable witnesses and victims by making provision for them to give evidence in alternative ways such as from behind a screen or via a pre-recorded video. There is also the Victims Charter which was introduced by Labour in its last year in Government. All of those things have gone a considerable way towards supporting victims and I think this bill will be another part of that support. 
It would be remiss of me not to talk about something that does not support victims and that is the proposed changes to accident compensation legislation. I take this opportunity to urge the Government to reconsider the guidelines that it is planning to impose on victims of sexual assault. It is never too late for the Government to admit that it got it wrong and I believe that that would be of tremendous benefit to victims in this country. We are effectively saying to this Government: “Good work on supporting Labour’s bill on this one. Please reconsider and support victims in this country in terms of those abhorrent guidelines that you are trying to impose.” 
Without further ado I say again that Labour fully supports this bill which is understandable because Labour introduced it. We are very very pleased that this bill has the full support of the House. Thank you.