Burns Brendon: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Burns Brendon: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12082. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take a call as we debate the Committee stage of the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill which deals of course with the victims of crime and tries to ensure that they get some justice from the processes of the courts. 
The bill picks up on some good Labour legislation that was brought about by the quite notable Taunoa case where compensation was awarded to a murderer and others. The Government of the time—with Mark Burton as a Minister and Phil Goff as the Minister of Justice—was determined to bring in legislation that ensured that although we met our international obligations and did not deny those in prison the right to the justice system where compensation was provided to offenders inside the prison system it would not mean that those who had been the victims of violence by those offenders would be excluded from benefiting from that compensation. This bill is about extending the date for a couple of years while the Government looks at a replacement model—and that is fair enough. But I would like to comment—and my colleague Stuart Nash touched on this issue—on the difference between the Government’s approach in respect of this legislation and the treatment it has given to victims of an equally serious heinous part of a judicial system and that is sexual abuse. 
I was interested to note that the number of people seeking counselling support for the trauma of sexual abuse was 200 or even 300 a month last year. Then suddenly with the changes that were introduced in February by the Minister for ACC Nick Smith we saw six people being awarded compensation in the form of sexual abuse counselling. I think about an organisation in my electorate the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust. It is headed by Ken Clearwater who does an exemplary job and who was a victim of sexual abuse in the past. The sorts of people who come through his office have often been in court have been damaged at an early age and are now perpetrating offences against others as they lash out to try to find some kind of redress for the abuse they suffered sometimes many decades before. 
The idea that we can be a just and humane society but not provide those people with the only support that we can provide—that is counselling and assistance—that we can cut the number of people being granted counselling support back from 200 or 300 a month to just a handful is an indication of this Government’s lack of commitment despite it talking the talk about supporting victims and about how it really is providing support. We can recall Nick Smith maintaining the pretence that the new guidelines had been conceived under the previous Labour Government by Massey University but Massey University blew the whistle on that and said that no the new guidelines were not of its initiation; they had been devised by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). We had months and months of Nick Smith trying to say that the new pathway that had been developed was perfectly fine and was based on evidence but only last week an ACC manager finally admitted to Mary Wilson on  
Checkpoint 
 that the changes might have been introduced far too fast for sexual abuse victims. The numbers very much make that very very clear. 
I think also of the double-bunking that has been introduced under this Government. We know that crime and punishment— 
Hon Member 
: Wonderful! 
BRENDON BURNS 
: Oh it will be! We need only think about the poor lad in the back of the van in Auckland and what happened to him. When we start putting violent criminals with others it is a recipe for disaster and the price will be paid very very quickly. 
We know that crime and punishment is about the scales of justice and they have to be balanced and they have to be balanced on an ongoing basis. When we see what is happening with sexual abuse victims we see that the balance is certainly not there and if the Government is going to do more than pay lip-service to the victims of crime it needs to acknowledge that it has made a ghastly mistake in respect of savagely cutting back counselling services for victims of sexual abuse both male and female—both male and female. The Government needs to acknowledge that the least we can do as a decent just and humane society is to continue to provide support to people who have been subjected to trauma. 
We are beginning to celebrate some of the people who have gone through that kind of abuse. I heard Louise Nicholas on the radio this morning. She is an outstanding New Zealand woman who stood her ground and brought to the attention of the public some of the abuses that can happen when people are not called to account. I think that most people regard her very very highly. Aaron Gilmore—the dancer not the politician—was recently in the media relating his story. Abuse happens to males and females and both sexes need access to counselling. We have heard this Government talking the talk about victims’ rights but when it comes to delivering services to them we have seen the numbers receiving help fall from hundreds to a handful. That is an illustration of the fact that this Government will talk the talk but not walk the walk in respect of delivering for those who are the victims of violence in New Zealand. 
Labour’s record on this issue goes right across the board. We introduced the Sentencing Act in 2002 with its presumption in favour of reparation. We introduced the Victims’ Rights Act in 2002 which extended a number of rights to victims. We introduced the legislation that is being amended by the Government now—the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act—in 2005 and of course in 2008 Annette King announced that the Victims Charter would be developed to build awareness of the standard of service that victims can expect from Government agencies. Those victims include those who have been the subject of sexual abuse and I would like to see the Government reinstate the counselling that was available to those poor people who have been the subject of sexual abuse trauma and who deserve every bit of support that can be mustered by the State. Thank you.