Logie Jan: Victims’ Orders Against Violent Offenders Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Victims’ Orders Against Violent Offenders Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 18 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16756. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. The Greens will be supporting this bill the Victims’ Orders Against Violent Offenders Bill albeit with some reservations as have already been outlined by my colleague David Clendon.Along with my colleague David Clendon and others on this side of the House I would just like to restate our belief in the need for a comprehensive review of all legislation and all of our practices around restoring and protecting victims’ rights especially—and I am adding this personally—in relation to domestic and sexual violence. They are the main drivers of violent crime in this country and we have not brought the numbers down. We know that the experiences of victims have not been significantly improving in recent times. This is an area of work that the Greens are really looking forward to working on next year when we have a new Government. We are very serious about ensuring that there is a demonstration of political will to reduce violence against women and children. Although as Rachel Hunter once said “it won’t happen overnight.” we know it can happen if we put our minds to it. Somebody in the community was suggesting to me just last week that if we really brought political will to bear we could see a really drastic reduction in crime against women and children within a decade if only we would commit to the measures needed.This bill was developed in response to the situation of a woman in Invercargill who was being harassed by her abuser post his release from prison. He had moved in next door to her and the police had been in for a chat with him and suggested that he move and he declined. They said that they could not do anything more unless he breached the indefinite protection order that was in place and breached the grounds for that order. There was also nothing that they could do to protect her from the harassment that she was experiencing from his friends. So that was the impetus for this bill and that is a good thing to respond to.While I have been out in the community I have also met a woman in provincial New Zealand who had had to send her young daughter of around the age of 12 away to the city to board because the man who had raped her daughter lived in their town and would still leer and make sexually suggestive comments to her when he saw her. There was nothing that they could do to stop that happening. My hope is that this bill will address that and enable those children to be able to stay with their families in their community and not to have to run away from abusers. We know that these two situations clearly represent many more. Kim McGregor from Rape Prevention Education has noted that there have been numerous cases of abusers moving in close to their victims. Clearly this does not represent justice or safety for those victims or for our communities.I would like to acknowledge that this bill is an attempt to ensure that victims can feel safe in their communities but I need to warn this House that we cannot tick off safety for these victims. This bill does not represent a whole solution. While we do nothing to improve the conviction rate from the pitiful one in 100 of sexual offences we leave 99 victims who are unable to get convictions without protection. We know that protection orders are only one piece of the puzzle. We need resourcing and training to ensure a consistent police and court response to breaches otherwise we are just creating a false sense of security as we have seen all too tragically in this country recently. Further those offenders who have been sentenced—and ideally those who have not—need treatment. Kim McGregor has noted that attending a treatment programme for 1 or 2 years reduces the risk of reoffending down to 5 percent. Yet there is a waiting list to get into the programmes within prisons and perpetrators have to self-fund programmes themselves after release if they have not been sent by a court. We need a whole-of-Government response to this to ensure safety for all.