Adams Paul: Prisoners' and Victims' Claims Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Adams Paul: Prisoners' and Victims' Claims Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:20940] 
PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 New Zealand First may be a bigger party than United Future at present but that will shortly change. I rise on behalf of United Future which is not supporting this bill. It was very interesting to hear Keith Locke. I think that as close as this is to an election both the Labour Party and the Green Party have seriously misread public opinion not only on this bill but on a number of issues. I think the members of those parties should be very very concerned. Keith Locke has said that we have to consider human rights. I do not think anybody would disagree with that statement but let us get real about what we are dealing with. We are dealing with prisoners—people who have been put away for committing some horrendous crimes as we have already heard tonight. Then all of a sudden prisoners have been mistreated and they are seeking compensation. Their victims will have to go through all the drama and all the emotions of confronting those people again if they are to try to get any claim on the monies that are being paid to prisoners. 
But let us take this issue one step further. If prisoners whom the State is responsible for looking after have their human rights violated what is to stop two prisoners both in prison from all of a sudden staging a set-up whereby one prisoner would fight another prisoner and then say his or her human rights had been violated? Those prisoners would go through a court case be paid out a large amount of compensation and then share the takings between themselves. That happens once we set a precedent for something. Nobody whom I know of would argue that prisoners should not be looked after correctly in prison; all those things we would agree with. But once we start to bring financial payments into any type of situation unfortunately because of human nature we go across a different line. 
I think Marc Alexander has done a tremendous job in this term of Parliament. He has brought victims’ rights before people. Everybody is now beginning to appreciate those rights and to gain a little understanding of what those poor people have had to put up with and to go through. People can see the effect that victims’ experiences have had on themselves their families and their friends and can see what victims have had to go through in court cases and many other things. Now all of a sudden we are bringing in legislation that states that if victims want to have any part of a financial payment to a prisoner they have to go through a legal process again. They will have to go through all the drama and have to face the offender. 
If we are talking about human rights we are talking about two lots of people. There is a prisoner who has been locked away because he or she has failed to follow the rules of society. But on the other side of the equation in many cases there is a totally innocent human being. All of a sudden as that person was going through a normal part of his or her life somebody invaded his or her home invaded his or her privacy or destroyed one of his or her family. Yes the offender and the victim are both humans but I cannot be convinced that they can both be treated equally in terms of human rights. If we have to weigh up whether one person is likely to suffer more than the other if we proceed with this legislation I believe that the public of New Zealand would say that there is absolutely no doubt about the fact that the prisoner is the one who should have to suffer more than the victim. 
I believe that as we go through this legislation the public will begin to get stirred up again about this issue. I can guarantee they will get stirred up; they have already been stirred up about this issue. New Zealanders are a people who understand fair play but they have said very clearly that paying this type of compensation to people who have been put away for committing crime is not in the fair-play basket. The United Nations may have said that we must be aware of prisoners’ rights and human rights—we understand that. But I think we have gone much further than that. Now in New Zealand we are beginning to say that we can pay financial compensation for those types of things.