7. Question No. 7—JusticeHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of JusticeQuestion No. 7—Justice7. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Justice: Is she confident the justice system is delivering justice and offering appropriate support to the victims of crime?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): To the first part of the question while we are always looking to ensure that we get the overall settings right for the justice system the member will be aware that the responsibility for convictions and sentencing—that sits with the court. Secondly to the second part of the question and as I've said time and time again improving outcomes for victims is one of our main priorities. Again while there's always more work to do in this area I note that the annual funding for the Victims Assistance Scheme has doubled under our Government since 2017.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Thank you Mr Speaker. Why has the $20 million initiative announced by the Government in 2020 to support strangulation victims helped more alleged perpetrators than it has helped victims?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: First context here: it was this Government that legislated to make non-fatal strangulation a criminal offence to recognise the seriousness of this behaviour in December 2018. We did that; that Government when they received a Law Commission report in 2016 did not do it. Secondly when we realised that victims felt comfortable to come forward and they started to file more and more of these types of complaints we realised that we needed to uplift the system as well which resulted in the Budget 2020 Budget bid of $20 million. I think it's fair to say that while COVID has impacted part of the roll-out what we continued to do during that period of time is that we invested over $1 million in front-line staff so that they could support victims coming through the system that have suffered from this offence. We expect to see more and more improvements over the course of next year.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Point of order Mr Speaker. I'm just not sure she addressed the actual question that I asked which was why has the fund supported more perpetrators—or alleged perpetrators—than victims. She said a whole lot of other stuff but I don't think she actually addressed that.SPEAKER: Members can't expect the exact answer that they're looking for. In my mind the Minister has provided enough information to address it but I will give the member an extra question so he can examine that further.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Thank you very much. What is her response to a Women's Refuge spokesperson who said regarding the Government's strangulation initiative that We know that strangulation victims have a seven times greater likelihood of being killed by the same partner so it's deeply disturbing to hear that defendants are accessing the fund more commonly than prosecutors are."?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: To that advocate on behalf of all victims of this type of violence I would say we absolutely acknowledge that and agree which is why we first of all ensured that the offence was made an offence. Secondly we uplifted the funding to make sure that those victims of that crime that had not had access to any form of justice prior to them have got the support that is required. Third I would say that of those three pots of funding yes there has been some spent out of the Ministry of Justice but the primary part of the funding has been fed through Vote Health and Vote Police which has ensured that there has been an uplift in capacity for those that need the support to bring forward and have the right type of evidence explored and examined in the health sector.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why have fewer than 50 victims accessed support from the Government's strangulation initiative when it was supposed to be helping 869 a year since 2020?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: A big part of the portion of the funding was to first of all ensure that the front-line people dealing with those complaints who have not had to deal with them before—medical practitioners people in the court—understood what the offences were. We have worked on that training—uplifted that skill base. But I will make the point that in 2018 of those that were prosecuted there was only a 33 percent conviction rate. This year there has been almost a 50 percent conviction rate as a consequence of the quality of the evidence that is coming before the courts.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why is she prioritising changing hate speech laws when just in the last nine months 391 ram raids have created new victims aplenty and victims of serious crime are waiting longer than two years for their cases to be heard under this Government and shouldn't those be her priorities?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: Well with all due respect to the member on this side of the House we can have multiple foci. One of the most important ones is ensuring that we acknowledge and accept and learn from those recommendations in the royal commission of inquiry's recommendations that highlighted that there were real opportunities of harm here in Aotearoa."