Wong Pansy: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wong Pansy: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12059. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PANSY WONG (Minister for Ethnic Affairs) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister of Justice 
: I move  
That the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. In effect this bill extends the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 for 2 more years following the current expiration date of 30 June 2010. The bill ensures that the current restrictions on prisoners’ claims are retained and that prisoners are awarded compensation only if no other remedy is appropriate. It also ensures that the victims of those prisoners awarded compensation continue to have priority to claim against that compensation. In addition the bill clarifies a potential ambiguity in one of the Act’s provisions. The bill makes it absolutely clear that the victims’ claims process applies to compensation payable for claims made by prisoners before 1 July 2012. 
I thank the Justice and Electoral Committee for its consideration of the bill in the short amount of time available. The committee received six submissions on the bill and has recommended that it proceed without amendment. That is not surprising as this bill simply maintains the status quo for a further 2 years and ensures that the application of the victims’ claim process is clear. The effect is a transition period that gives prisoners particularly those with historic grievances 2 more years to make their claims before a second bill which the Minister of Justice intends to introduce before the end of this year takes effect. That legislation will mean that if compensation is awarded to a prisoner then anything remaining after the prisoner’s victims have sought redress will be redirected to the broader victims’ services appropriation. The victims’ services appropriation is currently holding the revenue generated by the Government’s offender levy initiative and the funding from the disestablished Criminal Justice Advisory Board and the Sentencing Council. That money is already being put to good use by funding five new or enhanced entitlements for victims of serious crime. 
From 1 July 2010 three more initiatives will be rolled out. A new court support service for victims of sexual violence will be introduced as well as an enhanced homicide support service. More comprehensive information resources for victims of crime will also be available from July. This will provide a guide to the criminal justice system and explain the support that victims and their families can get. 
The bill before us and the new legislation to come will not prevent prisoners from seeking to uphold their rights through the courts; nor should it. Agencies responsible for wrongdoing will still be held to account and required to pay compensation where a sufficiently serious breach of a prisoner’s rights has occurred. That is appropriate because prisoner mistreatment should not be tolerated. However I make no apology for ensuring that where compensation is necessary victims of that prisoner have every opportunity to benefit from that compensation and seek redress for the harms committed against them. I commend this bill to the House.