Mitchell Mark: Bail Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Bail Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11527. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney):It is a pleasure to take a call on the Bail Amendment Bill. Firstly I would just like to acknowledge Ministers Collins Tolley and Borrows the three Ministers achieving great results in our criminal justice sector. I would also like to acknowledge the Law and Order Committee. I would like to acknowledge our chair Jacqui Dean who has done a very very good job chairing the committee in its hearing of the submissions on this bill. I would like to acknowledge the Hon Phil Goff Kris Faafoi David Clendon Richard Prosser from New Zealand First and of course my own colleagues Jami-Lee Ross Ian McKelvie and Lindsay Tisch—you Mr Assistant Speaker.This was actually quite a difficult bill to debate and for the committee to have in front of it because obviously it deals with victims of crime. We had a lot of brave submitters come along to the committee and make submissions that were deeply personal. Some of them had been victims of crime and others had been supporting families and friends who had been victims of serious crime. It was actually really important for us as a committee to hear submissions like those because we can sometimes live in a bit of a sterile world down here in Parliament in Wellington and to actually hear submissions like those allows us to get really focused and to understand how law changes can really affect victims and people in the community.I listened to what Mr Goff said. I understand that as part of the Opposition’s role it does a fair bit of work trying to analyse and work out how much of a real impact legislation is going to make. He talked often about how this bill operates and touches just around the margins. You know I just cannot buy that. Personally I think that if we can prevent one other Kiwi or New Zealander from becoming a victim of a serious crime then it is our duty and our role to make sure that we pass law that can stop that from happening.I do have to take a short call so I am going to get to the crux of the bill which I think is a very very important part of it and that is one of the main provisions which is around reversing the burden of proof. The bill will reverse the burden of proof in bail decisions for those charged with serious class A drug offences such as manufacturing or dealing in P as more than a third of defendants arrested for serious class A drug offences actually offend while they are still out on bail. It will also reverse the burden of proof in bail decisions for defendants charged with murder. Obviously murder is the most serious offence in New Zealand law currently but it is currently subject to the same test for bail as other less serious offences. So this obviously was a no-brainer. This had to be corrected. We will make this change to reflect the seriousness of the charge of murder.The current list of specified offences has not been reviewed since the Bail Act was enacted. It does not reflect the risk posed by defendants charged with other seriousviolent and sexual offences who have a history of serious offending. These were very very important changes to make to actually put the onus of proof back on the defendant to ensure that they could show a judge or a court that they are not going to be a danger that they are not going to reoffend against the community.The bill also expands the list of violent and sexual offences that will result in a defendant being subject to the reverse burden of proof if they have a prior history of such offending. We have only to read our papers watch the television or turn on the radio to understand that sadly our communities are still at risk and exposed to these offenders who are habitual reoffenders. This bill with this reverse burden of proof is going to strengthen the laws around them being able to be granted bail. This is a very good bill and I am very happy to commend it to the House. Thank you.