O'Rourke Denis: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 27 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18377. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): This legislation arising from the Victims of Crime Reform Bill is a very welcome step forward in the emerging movement to do more to support and consider the rights and needs of the victims of crime. I have heard some speakers say that more still needs to be done but nevertheless this is a good step forward and for that reason New Zealand First does support the legislation.The four bills amend and improve the current legislation. They provide better for victims of crime generally to broaden the rights of victims of serious offences to provide more opportunities for victims to be involved in the criminal justice processes to ensure victims are better informed of their rights to increase responsible Government agencies’ accountability for and responsiveness to victims and to achieve consistent victims’ rights in all adult and youth criminal jurisdictions.These objectives have been substantially achieved in these four bills as amended following the select committee process. The Justice and Electoral Committee did I think a very good job in making several amendments to improve the legislation—minor in themselves but adding to the quality of each of the four bills.I want to comment on only some of the new provisions. Clause 10 of the Victims’ Rights Amendment Bill will ensure that a reference to all of a victim’s contact details in court would be restricted to ensure privacy. This adds to a victim’s sense of security and privacy. Currently a victim can berevictimised by their contact details becomingpublic with all the potential dangers that that could mean. One of the most useful changes though in this bill I think is the changes to new section 17 set out in clause 12 regarding information about the victims. This legislation would not be effective unless attention is paid to obtaining comprehensive information about the effects of a crime on the victim so that the offender can be made accountable in terms of reparations.The new Act will now require a prosecutor to find out from any victim all relevant information about the victim’s injuries losses and other effects of the offence. The words used in section 17(1) are: “The prosecutor must make all reasonable efforts to ensure that information about the matters specified in subsection (1A) is ascertained from the victim.” And subsection (1A) lists: “(a) any physical injury or emotional harm suffered by the victim … (b) any loss of or damage to property suffered by the victim … (c) any other effects of the offence on the victim; and (d) any other matter consistent with the purpose of victim impact statements …”.I think that is a very important provision because unless there are mechanisms provided to ensure that information is obtained we cannot expect any adequate reparation to be awarded. There are also several other worthwhile amendments and improvements to requirements for notice to victims where offenders are released from detention abscond are released on bail are recalled are convicted of breaches of bail or indeed die.With regard to the amendments to the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 clause 38 of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 4) amends it to allow victims and their representatives to bring one or more support persons to the Youth Court as of right without having to seek permission from the judge although the judge of course can limit the number of supporters. The need to get that permission had operated as a disincentive to victims seeking the support that they often needed and there was no purpose in the consent of the court being required. It is now clear that the attendance of support people is a right for victims as it should be and I am very supportive of that new provision.New clauses 38A and 38B are also important. New clause 38A requires victims of offences committed by a child or young person to be notified should the child or young person abscond from a youth justice residence. New clause 38B requires that victims of offences committed by a child or young person would be notified should that person die in a youth justice residence. Again it would be most unsatisfactory for a victim to find out about these potential events from the news media or other informal sources. Victims need to know about these events so that they can take whatever actions if any they wish in response or at least be aware and perhaps be wary.With regard to the Parole Act 2002 the amendment to this Act set out in the Parole Amendment Bill (No 2) will restore a victim’s rights and entitlements that were incorrectly removed by the Parole Amendment Act 2007. Victims will therefore again be properly informed about the process and how they may participate in it. If a hearing is an attended one the victim must get notice of the details so that they can attend and the victim must be informed of their right to be interviewed if a hearing is to be unattended. If a hearing is to be unattended the victim would have the right to request that the decision to proceed in that way be reviewed. I think these are minor but actually very important provisions for a victim.Lastly amendments to the Sentencing Act 2002 set out in the Sentencing Amendment Bill (No 2) are aimed at improving the restorative justice process. I do not think I would agree with the comments of Mr Clendon on this. I do not think there is any danger in restorative justice processes and victims of rights of this kind beingattended to in a proceeding. After all it is when the offender has already been convicted that we are dealing with.Clause 44 of the bill inserts a new section 24A requiring the court to adjourn proceedings to allow an inquiry to determine whether restorative justice is “appropriate in the circumstances of the case”. I do think we can trust the courts to determine what is appropriate and what is not. The amendment now explicitly includes the wishes of the victims among the matters the inquiry must consider.Overall this is good legislation. It has benefited from the 34 submissions sent to the Justice and Electoral Committee and especially from the 12 submissions heard orally. I must say that these were some of the best submissions I have heard in a select committee process. Some of them were really quite compelling and dealt with personal experiences which I am sure many members of the committee felt were useful but also as I said very compelling.It has been a good process and these will be four good pieces of legislation as a result. New Zealand First will support all four bills as we have all the way so far. New Zealand First will always support legislation to assist victims so they are assisted by the processes of the criminal law and do not themselves becomerevictimised by it which has I am sad to say been the case too often in the past.This legislation will go some way to improve the old law and to help generate change in official attitudes towards victims. The new law will now be in place but the relevant parts of the Public Service will now need to play their part too in seeing that the culture change actually happens. Only then will we be able to say that all of the objectives I spoke of at the beginning of this speech have truly been achieved.