Power Simon: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Power Simon: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10492] 
Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration that the committee report finally to the House on or before 1 June 2010 and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day in which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 187 and 190(1)(b) and (c). 
The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 passed by the previous Government contains two important provisions that are due to expire on 30 June 2010. First the Act restricts the awarding of compensation to prisoners to those situations where no other remedy is deemed appropriate. Second if compensation must be awarded the Act allows victims of the prisoner to claim against it before the prisoner can access the money. This amendment bill extends these provisions for a further 2 years to ensure that victims are not locked out of this process from 1 July of this year. This is a transitional measure to ensure that victims’ access to prisoners’ compensation does not lapse prior to the introduction of further legislation in this area later this year. 
The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act I am afraid to report has not worked as well as what perhaps was intended. At the time that Labour introduced the legislation the then Minister of Justice Phil Goff predicted that it “will restrict compensation for inmates to exceptional cases … Where payments are made it maximises the prospect that victims will be the beneficiaries and I make no apology for that”. Since the Act came into force 17 awards of compensation have been subject to the victims’ claims process and finalised totalling over $139000. The Act has allowed over $25000 of that amount to be paid in reparations owed to victims. However only four out of the 17 awards have been the subject of successful victims’ claims totalling over $38000 paid out to victims. This has meant that prisoners have still received over $60000 at the end of the process. Unfortunately payments to prisoners on 13 out of 17 occasions can hardly constitute exceptional cases. It has to be said that without the victims’ claims process put in place by this Act admittedly and giving credit to the last Government prisoners would have received the whole amount. But clearly—and perhaps understandably—there is reluctance on the part of victims to claim against an offender’s payout and that is working to the benefit of the offenders. 
The Government’s policy as outlined before the election is to provide that when compensation is awarded to a prisoner anything remaining after the prisoner’s victims have sought redress will be redirected to the victims’ services appropriation. As the House will be aware the victims’ services appropriation is being used to fund additional services and entitlements for victims generally. This appropriation already includes funding from the disestablished Criminal Justice Advisory Board—that seems like a long time ago now—and the Sentencing Council and will be accompanied by revenue generated by another Government initiative: the $50 levy to be imposed on offenders from 1 July 2010. In October last year I announced eight new initiatives to be funded by the appropriation. Three are already under way and the remaining five will commence on 1 July. Until legislation is ready to redirect unclaimed compensation into the victims’ services appropriation this bill is necessary to ensure that the direct victims of prisoners continue to have priority in compensation awards. 
The previous Government also predicted that the Act would deter further compensation claims by inmates “as there will be no financial incentive for them to do so … if … the first call on any damages given to any prisoner who is wronged goes to the victims the offender has wronged.” However there are currently a further eight awards at various stages of the victims’ claims process; a much greater number of outstanding claims still exist as a result of the behaviour management regime which was found to breach prisoners’ human rights when it operated at Auckland prison from 1998 to 2004. Most important this bill ensures that those claims will continue to be covered by the existing prisoners’ and victims’ claims regime. The bill also clarifies that if a prisoner makes a claim before 1 July 2012 any compensation payable as a result of that claim will be subject to the victims’ claims process in the Act regardless of whether the claim is resolved by that date. 
The applicability of the process was previously in doubt due to a drafting ambiguity. The Government does take the matter of prisoner mistreatment seriously. The best way to reduce such complaints from prisoners is to stop these breaches from occurring in the first place. However where breaches occur the responsible agencies need to be held to account and retaining compensation as a remedy will continue to act as a disincentive for ill treatment. I commend this bill to the House.