te Heuheu Georgina: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:20996] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I want to refer briefly to some comments made by the previous speaker. The Greens are supporting the Government on this legislation. The Greens are trying to make themselves relevant just before the election because they have been totally irrelevant for the last 3 years. It is a waste of their time because they will be leaving Parliament. National certainly would not be dealing with the Greens. 
Talking about relevance it is totally irrelevant and obscene that under urgency just weeks before an election this Government should bring into the House this bill which is weighted totally in favour of some of the worst criminals in our jails. As I said earlier if the women on the other side of the House are happy that victims are only second class in this bill when many victims of violent crime as we know are women then good luck to them. But that is exactly why this Labour Government is on its way out of power. National will be sitting on that side after the election and of course the Greens will be nowhere. New Zealanders are sick of this softly softly approach to criminals. 
If we look though this bill we see that Part 3 also sets in concrete the fact that this bill is totally weighted in favour of offenders—including of course some of our worst offenders. On the other hand if one is a victim one may or may not think it is worth going through this awful awful process to try to get some recompense for the hurt and the suffering that one has endured at the hands of some of our worst criminals. 
My colleague Gerry Brownlee made reference to clause 73 which inserts new section 33A. That new section basically sets out that information about victims is to be held somewhere in the office of the Secretary for Justice alongside information about offenders. Why would anybody in his or her right mind have that sort of information sitting there? Although the bill supposedly says that none of that information on victims will ever be put before the offenders before our worst criminals how can we trust that sort of assurance from this Government? This Government does not know what is going on in its ministries. What has happened over the last 4 months has shown that very clearly. It has no control over what is happening in some Government agencies and it will have no control over this issue either. 
The very fact that that provision relating to information on victims is included in this bill shows exactly what the Government thinks about them. If it is right to compensate victims—and National certainly says it is; in fact we would be on the side of the victims not on the side of these criminals—we should not have information about the victims sitting alongside information about the offenders the criminals. Why do that? Why would victims go through the trauma of filing their claims if the criminals are able to see the claims and comment on them? Why would any victim want to go through that process? Well that is why this bill is a hoax. No doubt it raised victims’ expectations throughout the country but I do not know any victim who would put herself or himself through that trauma. 
This Government ought to be ashamed of itself. It will get punished for this bill just as it will get punished for Dr Cullen’s piddly Budget that tells hard-working New Zealanders they are not worth it. On the other hand this bill tells the crims that they are worth the Government’s time and effort. Shame on the Government members! And they know it. They are scrambling. Shame on them that one of the last pieces of legislation they are likely to bring in is being dealt with under urgency! They are being assisted by the Greens who are trying to make themselves relevant. The Greens have been totally irrelevant for 3 years. Nandor Tanczos is no longer regarded as relevant by even his own party.