Graham Kennedy: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Graham Kennedy: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 October 2011. Volume:676;Page:21685. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party has a broadly similar approach to the Victims of Crime Reform Bill as has been set out by all members here tonight. We recognise that the bill is part of a broader package that the Government is putting forward in terms of what it calls a comprehensive work programme to improve the status of victims of crime. This particular bill is generated by a concern that has been drawn from information from a range of sources that victims of crime find it difficult to understand criminal justice processes and their role in these processes that a number of victims would like a greater role in the criminal justice process and be better informed about the cases involving them and that a lack of visible complaints processes and oversight of victims’ rights have limited the accountability of agencies. So there is a variety of difficulties and problems that I think are well recognised across parties and there is a warrant for further reform legislation along these lines. 
The legislation proposes four or five particular broad areas. In respect of victim impact statements the bill gives victims greater freedom to express their feelings in their own words. It gives victims of serious crime the automatic right to read their statements in court. It gives victims of offending by children and young people the right to attend a Youth Court and to submit a victim impact statement and it would allow photographs and drawings to be submitted as part of such a statement. The bill also strengthens changes in the victim notification system in various ways. It widens the eligibility of victims who can receive notice increases the number of victims who receive notice about bail defenders and expands the information that victims receive about offenders on short-term sentences. The bill requires justice sector agencies to have complaints processes and to report annually to Parliament. It ensures that victims’ rights in the adult criminal jurisdiction are applied in the Youth Court jurisdiction. It gets the Ministry of Justice to develop a victims code in order to improve responsiveness and accountability. Those are all broadly desirable goals we think. As a result the Green Party is generally supportive of the bill. 
We think the clarity and slightly more expansive approach to victim impact statements will be helpful. The broadening into the youth justice area makes sense to us as does the increased focus on restorative justice. I think it has been mentioned already—and we certainly share some of the reservations that have been expressed—but we think there is reason for pause and that we should not proceed too headlong with this bill. It represents a diminution of the adversarial nature of our justice system that is based on a delicate relationship between the State and a criminal defendant. There are various questions that will need to be asked—for example what is the impact on a victim who can make these statements to an offender in a court but who might be denied a response from the offender? There is research that suggests that the victim can become more traumatised rather than less traumatised by that experience. We need also to consider the impact on the offender and the impact of being publicly denounced without a right of reply. 
As I think has already been noted this bill draws on the Justice and Electoral Committee’s report of 2007  
Inquiry into Victims’ Rights 
 which was initiated by the Green Party and in which we had a role. We are keen to assess the extent to which the bill—either as it is currently drafted or if it is amended by the select committee—might reflect the recommendations that came out of that committee report. That inquiry was a comprehensive look at what needs to be done to reform our justice system to become more inquisitorial and to focus on protecting those who have been hurt by crime. The bill incorporates some aspects of the goal of becoming a more inquisitorial system and it addresses some aspects that relate to protecting and helping those who have been hurt by crime so to that extent it reflects the committee’s report. But the bill directly incorporates only 12 of the 38 recommendations in the report as we assess it and most of the emphasis of the report’s recommendations that have been included in the bill are among the easiest kind to include. So there is a need to scrutinise the bill a little more thoroughly and we certainly intend to do that. 
In short we think the bill does not yet do enough to create support networks and to fully fund counselling and support for victims. There are perhaps privacy issues around the victim notification system for former criminals but we think that supporting the bill to the select committee will allow us to hear the evidence for and against the provisions of the bill. We are prepared to support it at its first reading but simply stress that there are flaws in the bill as it is currently drafted and that we intend to suggest constructive change.