Power Simon: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Power Simon: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15009] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 It is nice to see Damien O’Connor in the chair. It takes me back to years gone by and I look forward to getting answers to some of the questions in the appropriation financial review of the Ministry of Justice. Several issues need to be debated in respect of this financial year in review. I have no doubt that my colleague Mr Finlayson will cover many of those issues in his contribution. 
I ask the Minister a serious question: why is it that the Ministry of Justice is no longer the lead law reform agency in this country? Why is it that all of the law reform work that has been done by this Government in the last 12 to 18 months has been done by the Law Commission? Why is it that the Law Commission has at its fingertips a work programme that frankly would rival most departments under this particular Government yet the work output from the Ministry of Justice just seems to have come to a halt? Why is it that law reform is being led by the Law Commission and not the Ministry of Justice? I would appreciate an answer from the Minister because this is a serious decision. 
What leads the Minister of Justice to make the decision about referring work to the Law Commission and not to the Ministry of Justice? The Hon Clayton Cosgrove has done his best; he has sent them a couple of bones—real estate work and the JPs’ amendment bill. He has done his best to keep them busy but he is only one man. This ministry is a behemoth of an organisation with something like 2500 employees washing around in there yet it is Geoffrey Palmer and his colleagues who seem to be doing all the work. 
The extraordinary thing about this set-up is that as well as all these people at the Ministry of Justice who are doing their best to write the legislation that Mr Cosgrove has sent to select committees this ministry has seen 400 consultants and contractors paid more than $10000 in the year in review. So not only is this ministry not actually doing any law reform work any more because it is all done by the Law Commission but also it has taken on 400 consultants and contractors each of whom has been paid more than $10000 in the year in review. We have to ask ourselves what they are all doing. If most of the hard work for law reform is going to the Law Commission and if we have taken on 400 consultants and contractors who have been paid $10000 or more to deal with outsourcing the tricky stuff what is it that officials at the Ministry of Justice have done in the year in review? I think that the New Zealand public is entitled to know that answer. 
If Geoffrey Palmer and his crew are going to write legislation table reports and on the whole make useful suggestions for law reform—and I certainly do not begrudge the commission the quality of its work; I think that on the whole it is very good—the question is why is it doing it and why is the ministry itself not doing it? We know that the ministry will also be facing a forecast of $800 million in unpaid fines in the year ahead. What has it done in the year in review to reduce those outstanding fines? 
What has the ministry done in the year in review to make sure that reparation in the sum of about $80 million has made its way to the victims of crime? The Minister of Justice has told us that this is the year—forget about the last 8 years—in which the Government is going to do something about victims. We should not worry about the last 8 years—they were the years of the criminal; this is the year of the victim. What we need to know today from the Minister in the chair the Hon Damien O’Connor is what will be done to get those reparation payments to victims. What will be done to get the $800 million forecast in unpaid fines to be paid by those who owe it? More important what does the Ministry of Justice do?