Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Parole Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Parole Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1670. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak during the third reading of the Parole Amendment Bill.National is committed to building a safer New Zealand. Presently we have the lowest crime rate in 35 years. Before we took office in 2008 crime was increasing gangs were growing stronger prisons faced a critical shortage of beds P was seriously damaging communities violent repeat offenders were being freed on parole and the courts were congested. National embarked on a comprehensive programme of reforms. We have passed new laws and made some other policy changes to improve public safety and the rights of victims. This has resulted in less crime tougher sentences and parole law more police on the front line a crackdown on illegal drugs and $1 million of seized assets from gangs. We have averted the prison crowding crisis and increased public confidence in law enforcement.The Parole Amendment Bill implements the Government’s plan to reduce the number of unnecessary parole hearings where the offender has little prospect of release. The bill also includes ways to improve the effectiveness of other parole systems. The purpose of the parole hearing is to determine whether the offender has managed to address the issues or whether he or she continues to pose a risk. On average each offender has three hearings prior to release but there are four or more hearings in a third of all cases. The exception is where the Parole Board makes a special order postponing further consideration of a case for a longer period.The bill increases the maximum interval between hearings in the general run of cases from 1 year to 2 years. This will give the Parole Board greater flexibility in reducing further hearings. Depending upon the advice that the Parole Board receives from corrections officials it may then prepare for future hearings. The existing law requires a hearing at least once every 12 months. This has without doubt led to a number of problems which this bill will address. A further hearing has to be scheduled in a few months’ time in many cases because the offender is still completing core components of their offenders plan. This bill requires the board when it declines to release an offender on parole to specify whether the offender will next be in consideration for parole or not. It allows the board to specify any particular milestone relating to the offender’s risk that is expected to change before the next hearing.As an incentive for prisoners to address the reasons for their offending the bill includes a process for having their cases brought forward when a milestone is achieved earlier than expected.The person who suffers the most is the victim. Therefore by way of legislation we want to put victims first. We want to deliver on our promise of reforming legislation that may be outdated. Our reforms are targeted at ensuring that we protect our communities reduce crime and put victims first. The bill proposes a number of amendments to the Parole Act 2002. I commend the work of the current and previous Ministers of Justice and officials for their initiative and for the progress the bill has made through various levels. We want to put victims first but we also want to ensure that prisoners who show good positive behaviour have every chance of being let out on parole.As I said earlier our intention is to put victims at the heart of the justice system and deliver on our promises. Our plans to reduce unnecessary parole hearings for offenders will reduce stress on the victims of crime. Victims of crime should not have to face the stress of parole hearings year after year when an offender is clearly not safe to be released into the community and has made little or no effort at rehabilitation. As it is the victims of crime who suffer a lot psychologically and emotionally we should try to relieve some of their stress and not add to it. Each year there are about 5000 parole hearings. On average offenders have three hearings before being granted parole. By no means may this be fair on the victims especially when the chances of being granted parole are very slim. Our changes are to bring efficiency into the system and also to protect the victims from ongoing trauma when it is unnecessary for this to happen.Our changes will provide a strong incentive for prisoners to address their offending behaviour and that is a good thing. We have since returning to Government introduced a number of changes that have resulted in positive changes to the lives of prisoners. We have educational plans for prisoners. This has resulted in the number of prisoners gaining qualifications increasing from 197 in 2008-09 to 1833 in 2012-13. In addition an extra 3000 prisoners have enrolled in literacy and numeracy training in 2013-14. This number has increased by 155 percent.It is with great pride that I can share that the drug and alcohol treatment programme has seen a dramatic rise of 1500 percent. The more we can assist prisoners in getting back to a normal lifestyle when they are inside prison the better the chance is that they will not reoffend or commit a crime when they are released. Further with the training and qualifications that they can gain there is a fair chance that most of these prisoners may well become positive contributing members of our society.At the Law and Order Committee we had a good discussion on all these elements of this legislation. The committee felt that we should replace the term “risk milestone” with the words “relevant activity”. Further in a case where the Parole Board did not specify a time frame for the standard release conditions then the default time has to be 6 months. The committee recommended that this clause be inserted in the legislation. The committee also recommended that when a Parole Board application is declined the board may specify a set of activities that the offender must complete before an application is reconsidered. By way of these and other amendments proposed the National-led Government wants to ensure less stress on victims while giving offenders an opportunity to improve their behaviour.Based on the behaviour displayed by offenders the Parole Board may of course set an earlier hearing date. Hearing dates can be aligned with the completion of their rehabilitation programme. By way of making these changes we hope to save the Department of Corrections $700000. I am sure that this amount can be used towards improving services elsewhere. This focus is in line with our goal of prioritising spending and delivering better public services. Most of all we are putting victims first in our attempt to reduce their stress. With these words I commend this bill to the House.Chris Bishop: Oh great speech.