Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Chair. So for those tuning in to this debate this is a debate where we're discussing the Government's spending in the justice sector for the coming year in the Budget. As has just been indicated you know $800 million - odd are spent in the justice-specific area but obviously a lot more is spent on the prisons through corrections and through the police and in the broader sense that there are several billions being spent. Justice as the overarching portfolio guides the priorities for the Government of the day in terms of spending and that's guided by the legislation that they pass. We've been on the record a number of times querying the priorities of this Government in justice as a whole. It is a fact that the one real clear priority that they've set out so far articulated by Kelvin Davis is to reduce the prison population by 30 percent irrespective of what's going on in our communities and on our streets.We contend that that is a misplaced focus. Everybody wants to see fewer people in prison but it needs to follow a fall in crime. But instead we've seen an increase in crime over the same period. In terms of violent crime we've seen a 40-odd percent increase in violent crime over the same period that we've seen a more than 20 percent drop in the number of people in prison. So that leaves people confused and confounded and trying to understand what the purpose is. Is it to keep us safe or is it just to follow an ideological desire to reduce prison numbers come what may?So when we see the money that's being spent—a lot of it on advice from the Ministry of Justice—we ask ourselves: Well what is the focus of the advice; what are they trying to achieve?" We are two months out from an election. If I was fortunate enough to be Minister of Justice I'd be focusing on making better progress on reducing violent crime in our communities. So I'd be interested in where the Government sees her priorities are there and what the Government is trying to achieve there.Then we'd be trying to deal with the real problems that we've got on youth crime—we've seen a 500 percent increase in ram raids and that's got out of control over the past few years. Various schemes have been put forward but they haven't seemed to have been working so far. We have proposed some new tools such as military academies. We've also proposed new legislative tools around young serious offenders but we haven't seen much progress made there.The third area needs to be the focus on speeding up the processes of the courts which is keeping people's lives on hold for years waiting for justice. But when we see this Government's priorities—as well as reducing the prison population we just heard today that they're going to be introducing legislation to reduce the voting age to 16. Well I mean heck thank goodness for that! That's one thing that the people of New Zealand are calling out for when there's violent crime increasing youth crime is out of control and there are long delays in the court system! But this Government is focused on reducing the voting age to 16. Now they've also been spending millions of dollars on their crusade to ban hate speech which is on and off again—I think it's off at the moment—but has involved a lot of ministerial and official advice on that topic. So I'd be interested to know just what the Government is proposing to spend on the consultation and advice on that latest bill that they brought in around reducing the voting age the Electoral (Lowering Voting Age for Local Elections and Polls) Legislation Bill.Then finally we've heard from the Minister of Justice today talking about being victim-centric and trying to focus on the needs of victims of crime. The fundamental question I ask her is: surely the thing that victims of crime want to be most focused on—well first is not to become a victim in the first place which is around improving public safety but then secondly to see justice and justice done. We've seen a number of cases over the last few years where people—young men—have been convicted of very serious sexual assaults on young women including rape and have received home detention sentences. I would have thought victims would not be very impressed with that frankly and what that means.So what I'd like to understand is why the Minister and the Government haven't given more attention to the Sentencing Act and whether it's working effectively and whether the massive discounts that we're seeing—sometimes up to 70 percent of sentences—from judges as they apply a whole lot of discounts—where people have come in committed and been convicted of very serious crimes serious assaults and like I say rapes where the starting point might be eight or nine years in prison and then a whole lot of discounts have been applied and they've ended up in home detention on the Xbox watching TV and doing whatever they're doing on home detention. So the question is: is the Minister satisfied with the situation where there is unfettered discretion on the part of the judiciary to reduce them as much as they feel due fit?Now we in the National Party have proposed a limit on that and I'd be interested in her views on whether she sees that as appropriate. So when it comes to the $196 million that's being spent on the Ministry of Justice primarily to provide advice to the Minister has she asked for some advice on that whether we've got that balance right and why should we change and why shouldn't we change?I also want to know whether she's asked for advice on whether the community is safer as a result of her Government's goal of reducing the prison population by 30 percent regardless of what's going on in the community? And I saw some interviews where she said basically they hadn't asked and they didn't really know. I'd give her another chance I suppose to answer that—perhaps a bit better—so that she can reassure New Zealanders or try to explain to New Zealanders why she sees that as a priority when everybody is seeing an increase in violent crime in our communities. We've had a dreadful number of shootings in Auckland recently. We've seen the increase in ram raids. We've seen the 100 percent increase in retail crime such that the many shop workers up and down the country are concerned for their safety and the many parents who've got young kids working in hospitality and retail worry about their safety. And yet the Government continues to be focused first and foremost on reducing the prison population come what may. I want to know whether the Minister's got advice from officials as to what impact that is having on public safety so that we can get a better understanding of that.Another area that I'd be interested to know is around the $6 million - odd a year that's being spent on cultural reports including some money going to the likes of Harry Tam a lifetime Mongrel Mob member to write some of these reports. His company has a nice website sort of promising reduced sentences from these cultural reports if they do them well and you can get a quote for doing one of these cultural reports. We on this side of the Chamber aren't impressed with the cottage industry that's developed there. It's our view that that money would be better spent better supporting the victims of crime and giving them access to the support and help they need. The previous Minister Kiritapu Allan before she departed did say that she wasn't very convinced that we were getting good value for money from those cultural reports. I'd be very interested to see whether the new Minister the fourth Justice Minister we've had in this Labour Government following Mr Little following Mr Faafoi and Kiri Allan—the fourth Minister I wondered what her view on the cultural reports was and whether she thinks we would do better by victims of crime if we gave them some of the extra support that they need.Finally I think just some other random impertinent questions for the Minister to consider. Does she believe we are indeed in a crime wave in this country after six years of this Government? How would she describe the situation more broadly given all the money that we invest given the laws that are passed and given all the talk that she has said about new legislation extra police and more resources? How would she assess the current situation that we face does she believe there is room for improvement and how does she think sticking with the current plan which is to reduce the prison population irrespective of what's going on in community is going to help? And I'll leave those questions for her to consider."