Roy Heather: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Roy Heather: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2007. Volume:640;Page:10650. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the third reading of these five bills on behalf of ACT New Zealand. I am pleased to see that the legislation that started off life as the Criminal Justice Reform Bill has been broken down into five separate bills because ACT will be opposing three and supporting two of the bills.  
Many of the comments I would ordinarily stand up and make at these third readings have already been made while I was listening to the debate on my radio in my office. ACT is opposing the Sentencing Council Bill the Bail Amendment Bill and the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Amendment Bill and is supporting the other two bills. I will confine myself to the Parole Amendment Bill (No 2) and I will just revisit for a moment if I may the amendments that I put in the Committee stage last week with regard to victims’ rights when it comes to making a presentation to the Parole Board.  
ACT feels very strongly about victims’ rights as I know some of my other colleagues in this House do and there seemed to be a lot of confusion. ACT members did not have the joy of being on the Justice and Electoral Committee—we do not have a position on this particular committee—but I know that many victims and many victims’ rights groups presented submissions to the select committee on this portion of the combined legislation. It seems from my having talked to many of those people and from reading the commentary that most of their concerns were completely ignored by the select committee. Certainly there is no mention of their submissions in the commentary and very good submissions they were too. One is left thinking that very little credence was given by the committee to any thoughts or worries that those submitters may have had as a result of its hearing their submissions.  
My former ACT MP colleague Stephen Franks needs to be mentioned in this debate. He played a large hand in having the amendments come forward. He spoke to me about the victims’ rights that he felt were about to be lost. As a result of that conversation with him I put forward the six amendments last week. The situation in the legislation as it stood on Thursday when I came to participate in the Committee stage of the bill was that perhaps victims would be invited to appear before the Parole Board when their offenders came before it. There would have been no automatic right for them to appear as currently exists but they would be invited to appear. My amendments were intended to remove those invitation clauses—for want of a better word. I think that is very important.  
Victims certainly feel very strongly about this matter. They feel that they have been wronged. In many cases far too often they feel they are hung out to dry although the rights of the offenders are given paramount importance. So I was delighted when the Committee voted to support my amendments so that the status quo would be retained in this instance. Victims now automatically have the right to appear before the Parole Board when the parole of offenders comes up for consideration. My thanks go to Mr Ron Mark of New Zealand First and ultimately every other member in the Committee for voting for these amendments.  
The other reason I am pleased to support this Parole Amendment Bill (No 2) is that the legislation talks about the privilege of coming before the Parole Board because that is exactly what it is. These offenders these criminals have been sentenced. They have been given a sentence but before that sentence is fully served they receive the privilege of appearing before the Parole Board and having a cut in their sentence considered. That is indeed a privilege; it is not a right. I am pleased to see that at least in this case the right wording has come before this House.  
I will support the Parole Amendment Bill (No 2) and I am very happy to do so. Victims play a very important role in this whole procedure and their concerns and worries are very often paid little heed. I think that is a sad indictment on our society and we as legislators have a core role in leading and promoting victims’ rights.  
The Criminal Justice Reform Bill was very wide-ranging legislation and quite rightly it has been divided into five separate bills. I will not talk about any of the other bills. As I mentioned when I stood up to speak I think all the comments I could have made about those bills have been reflected in other speeches particularly in those made by National members. I share their concerns particularly with regard to the three bills we oppose.  
When it comes to the voting I think that ACT can be proud of the fact that it has always been consistent on the issue of crime and justice. No one I think will be surprised at the voting when that happens.