Lees-Galloway Iain: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12074. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 It seems a little odd that all the speakers in this Committee stage so far have come from the Opposition and that this Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill essentially just extends a provision that the Labour Government brought into effect back in 2005. That seems odd because National campaigned so heavily at the last election campaign on being tough on crime on being the law and order party and on being the party that would put victims at the centre of justice and law and order policy. Of course its campaign was all about what a bad job Labour had done. Well if National were really serious if National actually had some ideas and if National were to follow through on its campaign promises then it would not be extending something that Labour had already brought in back in 2005. 
The party that has had some success in pushing through harsh and Draconian law and order legislation is of course the ACT Party which is also stunningly silent this evening. David Garrett was the architect of the “three strikes” legislation and I was lucky enough to have an interesting debate with Mr Garrett not so long ago. He came up to Palmerston North to extol the virtues of that legislation and we talked about all the ways in which that legislation has also failed to put victims’ rights at the centre. We will see victims going through much longer trials as the incentive comes into place to encourage those who have been charged with a crime to fight it to the bitter end by appealing against their sentence because it will be so harsh. We will see victims dragged through all of that. 
The “three strikes” legislation did nothing to support victims in the way that the forerunner of this bill the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 went a small way towards doing. We talked about the fact that the “three strikes” legislation has absolutely no preventive character about it whatsoever. Mr Garrett even accepted that the Ministry of Justice figures were right in that we would see more people going into prison because that legislation simply would not be effective in actually preventing any crimes or in preventing any more people from becoming victims. It was “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” stuff which in a way I suppose this legislation is as well. That is why it was always only a temporary measure. Labour brought it in as a temporary measure only but National is so devoid of ideas and so shallow in its campaigning that it has nothing to follow it up with. The ACT Party the party that is supposedly tough on crime—it is even tougher on crime than National; they are trying to outdo each other as to who is tougher—has absolutely nothing to say about this bill whatsoever. 
Given that this bill is an extension of what the Labour Government introduced perhaps it is worth reflecting on what a good job Labour did in putting victims’ rights at the centre. Back in 2002—as long ago as that—the Sentencing Act was adjusted to introduce a presumption in favour of reparation and that resulted in reparation being used as a sentence far more frequently. In 2002 we also saw an increase in the use of restorative justice so that offenders would actually be more accountable to victims. That legislation really put victims at the centre of sentencing and of law and order policy. 
Labour introduced the Victims’ Rights Act back in 2002 as well. Moving forward to 2008 Annette King introduced the Victims Charter to develop and build awareness about the standard of service that victims of crime could expect. Of course Labour promised to put a significant amount of money—about $1.5 million or more than that I think—into Victim Support to boost that organisation’s ability to provide services to victims. That is the kind of policy the kind of legislation that puts victims’ rights at the centre. 
This bill is perfectly reasonable and that is why Labour will support it but the legislation it amends was only ever something temporary. It was a temporary measure with a view to doing more. Frankly the National Government midway through its term has had plenty of time to think up new initiatives to show that it had more to its campaigning more to its rhetoric than just a shallow knee-jerk reaching out to those who felt affected and abused by crime if they had been victims of it. This is a nothing bill. We will support it but really it does nothing for victims.