Roy Heather: Criminal Justice Reform Bill — In Committee 
Roy Heather: Criminal Justice Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:640;Page:10562] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I have put forward some amendments that I would like to bring to the attention of the various parties in this Committee. They are fairly simple in their nature and they are all around the subject of victims’ rights and the ability of victims to present to the Parole Board. I would like to have subclause (3) omitted from clause 96 subclause (1) omitted from clause 97 subparagraphs (ii) and (iii) of new section 45(7)(b) omitted from clause 98 clause 101 omitted and also clauses 102 and 104 omitted. 
The reason I want those amendments made by this Committee is simple. Although the ACT party was not represented on the Justice and Electoral Committee I understand that the committee heard a large number of submissions from victims but these have largely been ignored in the committee’s report. In fact the victims of various crimes are feeling quite aggrieved—firstly about that but secondly about what they perceive as a lack of ability to be heard now before a Parole Board except under exceptional circumstances. I would like to call on Parliament to cut out the provisions of the Criminal Justice Reform Bill that remove the victims’ right to be heard by this board on whether criminals should be let out of prison. 
This bill currently before us in the Committee stage should take victims’ rights into consideration. I believe that this debate should be halted until the Government has lodged a Supplementary Order Paper to remove these provisions but in the absence of the likelihood of this happening I have put forward these amendments myself. 
When the select committee reported on the bill none of the members on the committee bothered to comment on victims’ submissions which begged them—and the victims were begging because they felt personally aggrieved—to remove this right. Labour National and the Green members on the committee spent a lot of time looking at the confidentiality of evidence of prisoners’ wrongdoing. They worried a lot about the rights of criminals but the victims of a large number of crimes felt that their voice would not be heard at all. They feel really that no apology for the biggest impact of the bill on victims will be heard and that provisions to shut victims out of Parole Board hearings will happen if this legislation is passed and these amendments are not made. 
The committee did manage to spare a paragraph to endorse some meaningless words which were put in to pretend that parole is a privilege not a right. But it did not even note that the attendance of victims at hearings will now be a privilege not a right. The Parole Board will grant the privilege only if victims agree to confine themselves to discussing the “risk to the safety of the community” posed by the criminal’s release and “ways of managing any risks …”. No longer will they be able to protest about the simple injustice of a criminal’s early release and the hurt that it does to victims who have already suffered far too much. So board members by locking the door can now protect their delicate ears against the demands that a meaningful part of a sentence be served. They need not hear these protests against the board’s conversion of a sentence into a trivial price for what very often are vicious crimes. 
Parliament it seems is ganging up with those in the justice establishment who are contemptuous of the public demand for real penalties for crime. Time and time again communities and citizens of New Zealand have voiced their very loud concerns about real penalties not being served for crimes and the rights of victims not being heard and certainly not being listened to. Victims are seeing the scandalous parole process put back behind doors that are firmly closed to them. That is surely not fair and at worse is quite scandalous in itself. I would like the other parties in this Committee when considering this stage of the legislation to think very carefully about the amendments I have put before it and to support them. Thank you.