Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:620;Page:15794] 
7.  
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does her statement that “the Government like the public is grossly offended at the fact that people are getting awarded large sums of money when in some cases their victims are dead and others have had nothing whatsoever” apply to Andrew Ronald MacMillan receiving $1200 for his “hurt feelings”; if so how does she propose to stop such a payout? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I was not referring to that case which involves a relatively small amount of money. However such cases will be caught in future by the policy announced yesterday. 
Rodney Hide 
: Would the Prime Minister please explain to this House and to the public of New Zealand how in any way the offence is lessened to the public of this murder and rapist getting $1200 because his feelings have been hurt by allowing the dead girl’s family to apply to get that $1200? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The person concerned was an appalling murderer and frankly I find some difficulty with the Human Rights Review Tribunal awarding him anything. However it did and the amount of money was relatively small. The Crown looked at whether it could appeal was advised that it should not appeal and did not appeal. In future any such consideration by that tribunal or the other courts will be governed by the new rules. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was: how does it lessen the offence? That is the issue we are dealing with. The Prime Minister spoke about policy but she did not in any way address the question as required about how the offence could in any way be lessened. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I thought the Prime Minister did address the question. 
Stephen Franks 
: Does the Prime Minister accept the view that international law prevents the New Zealand Government from abolishing prisoners’ rights to damages for breaches of human rights law; if so what will she do to restore our sovereign right to decide what is an effective remedy for mistreatment in our prisons—given that this one was invented by judges as recently as 1994? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: As the Minister of Justice said in his earlier answer the advice he has received and relayed to the Government is that New Zealand’s international human rights obligations would stop it preventing prisoners from claiming compensation. 
Stephen Franks 
: Do you believe that? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Yes I do accept that advice from Crown Law and the Ministry of Justice. The policy announced yesterday then brings in a balance whereby the grounds on which compensation can be paid are quite restricted and where it is paid the opportunity is opened up for victims to go for a civil action with some prospect of getting that payment. 
Rodney Hide 
: Would the Prime Minister now answer my supplementary question which was this: does she believe that the public offence at this murderer and rapist getting $1200 because his feelings were hurt would be in any way ameliorated by the dead girl’s family being able to apply to get some or all of that $1200? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Probably not because of the grossness of the murder that that person carried out. But I point out that the new policy actually sets out criteria in law governing and restricting the circumstances under which inmates may be awarded damages. Had that been in place it might well have had a quite different effect on the Human Rights Review Tribunal.