Bridges Simon: Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bridges Simon: Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 October 2009. Volume:658;Page:7342. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 It is very good to follow Te Ururoa Flavell in this debate on the Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill. He made some very perceptive comments about victims and the sociology of victims. As he made clear and as the statistics and the research show victims more than often are not if we can put this in graphic terms the little old lady who is worried about crime. I suppose that the cruel irony is that crime more often happens to the young seemingly invincible Maori male who thinks that crime will not happen to him but that is where crime is at. The young the poor and the dispossessed are the victims of crime much more often. 
It is good to talk on this bill which is very much about victims and putting victims back at the centre of our justice system. Previously in other parts of the debate on this bill I have talked about the very real benefits that what we are doing here will have for victims of crime. It will mean travel to and from court and that is not insubstantial. It will potentially mean replacing clothing that had to be sent off for DNA testing. It will mean counselling. These things will make a real difference to the victims of crime. This bill is part of a bigger picture. It is a piece of the puzzle in what we and the Minister Simon Power are doing in the justice arena. We are toughening up law and order. We have put through a raft of bills as part of our initial 100-day programme. We have toughened up the bail law sentencing laws and aspects of parole. But what we are also doing and what should not go unnoticed is that we are putting the victims back at the centre of the justice system. We are not just all about offenders. We are also doing something for those on the other side of the coin—the victims. 
I can think of a number of people who came before the Justice and Electoral Committee and also the Law and Order Committee who have been victims of crime who very much feel that they have not been part of the justice system and that they have not been listened to. In our society the system we have is the 
“ 
Queen v Smith 
” not “ 
Smith v Smith 
”. It is the Crown that brings a case. What that means is that often victims do not have control of the case and rightly so because there may be cases where witnesses are reluctant but it is still right and proper for the Crown to bring the case. This bill illustrates that we are hearing what is being said at select committees. We are bringing victims back in. We are trying to do things to make it better for them to ameliorate the conditions in which they find themselves when crime occurs. 
Some of the points made by members opposite are at first blush fair but when analysed they do not hold much weight. One of the things that Clayton Cosgrove said is that judges will be dishonest about this and that they will say: “Well we have got this $50 levy so because of that we will reduce all the other fines and reparation.” I do not believe that is true at all. I think that judges will be much more true to their oath than that. They will read this bill and see quite clearly the intent of Parliament and this $50 levy will not be taken into consideration when they look at other financial penalties. 
Another thing that has quite frequently come out from members on the other side of the House is that it is not right that this levy is per offender rather than per offence. I say two things in relation to that. Firstly if it were per offence we would have a ridiculous situation where for example an offender coming before the court with 100 burglaries would attract exceptionally large penalties. That would be unworkable. Secondly and this is a significant point this levy is not a sentence. It is not about punishing the offender; it is about doing something for the victim. 
I come back to the points I have already made. This bill is a plank in our justice armoury and in our agenda on justice. It is very much about putting victims back at the centre of the justice system where they belong.