Jones Dail: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:20962] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First’s view on this bill is straightforward. We want New Zealand to comply with all international conventions so we support the right of prisoners to go along to the courts to make a claim if they have been mistreated in prison. We say that any money they receive should be paid to victims only. We do not want to see the murderer of Coral Burrows or the murderer of the people at the RSA being compensated for their time in prison. We do not want to see prisoners being encouraged to misbehave in prison so they may then get compensation. This bill encourages prisoners to misbehave and make prison officers’ life hell. It is a difficult enough job to be a prison officer without having prison officers being provoked by thugs and the absolute no-hopers of our society which would make a prison officer’s life even worse than it is. This Government has no regard for the well-being of prison officers and for the things they have to go through. Of course the Government closed down the private prison in Auckland. It really does not give two hoots about the prison service. 
 We say that no funds should be made available to criminals. The Government should take appropriate action against prison officers and any other persons employed by the Department of Corrections who have created a situation whereby prisoners are entitled to make a claim. That is the redress that we say should be undertaken. If a prisoner is mistreated then redress should be taken against whoever has mistreated that prisoner but no actual compensation should be given to the prisoner himself or herself. Remedies such as dismissal from the Department of Corrections and prosecution should be utilised by the Government to ensure that any situations that would give rise to claims by criminals will not be repeated. That is what we should be looking at. We should be looking at a non-repetition of those events. But this legislation will ensure that those events are repeated and that is the whole problem with regard to it. 
We want to see any money that will flow as a result of a natural right that is available to anyone who has been mistreated go to people who really have been mistreated. We take the view that when a murderer like the murderer of Coral Burrows and the one who committed the RSA murders commits crimes like those he or she virtually loses his or her human rights. In many societies when people go to prison they lose all rights. Well we do not have that particular type of society nor should we. We should make sure that when people are incarcerated they are given a decent way of life are able to do their time and are able to come out of prison and make a contribution later on. But the people we are talking about—in particular the ones who are before the courts now making claims—have almost lost their right to human rights because of the way they have behaved in society. 
New Zealand First proposed various amendments to this legislation and if those amendments had been supported obviously we would be supporting the bill. That is why we agreed to its going to the Justice and Electoral Committee. We wanted to give the Government the chance to get this bill correct so that the various victims of criminal offences around the country could benefit from the funds that are to be made available as a result of this legislation. The Government was not prepared to listen to New Zealand First. It was not prepared to listen to the Sensible Sentencing Trust which took the view that the funds should go into a victims’ claims trust account and should be paid out to all victims around New Zealand once the specific victim of the offender had first been compensated from the fund. But no this Government wants to support prisoners; it wants to support brutal murderers. Well New Zealand First cannot support that viewpoint. We have also made it clear by if I may just indicate this in passing an amendment to clause 2 that this bill should come into effect on 1 January 2005 and should apply to all cases that are currently before the courts including any appeals so that any money that is made available by the courts must go into a victims’ claims trust bank account and be there for the benefit of victims only and not for the benefit of hardened criminals. 
I am staggered that the Greens support this legislation. 
Brian Connell 
: What are you staggered for? 
DAIL JONES 
: Because the Greens are supposed to support the environment and we know that many of those criminals have a great desire to go out into the pristine parts of New Zealand to grow certain plants that damage that pristine environment. I thought the Greens supported the conservation of our environment but no the Greens want to support those types of murderers who commit their crimes while under the influence of cannabis and other drugs—cannabis that has been grown in the pristine parts of New Zealand and destroys our environment.