Lee Melissa: Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill — Second Reading 
Lee Melissa: Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill — Second Reading 
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MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise to speak in this debate on the second reading of the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill. Normally I like to listen to the speeches of the member who has just resumed his seat Chris Hipkins but I am rather disappointed with his speech today. He started off by talking with hollow rhetoric. Let me tell members what has been hollow. The speeches from the Labour Opposition have been rather hollow because none of the speakers were part of the select committee process in the Law and Order Committee. Where were the members who sat through the select committee process on this bill? If members had been at the select committee they would know that 94 percent of the submitters supported this bill. So the hollow rhetoric has come from the Labour Party—let me start by saying that. 
Labour members are very loud in opposing this bill now that they are in Opposition but I wonder what Labour’s stance on violent crime really is. I wonder about its voters and whether they know about its stance on violent crime. It seems that in the 9 long years that Labour was in Government it did absolutely nothing about violent crime. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Oh rubbish. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Well if Labour had done something about it the statistics would show that. It did nothing and we are now trying to fix that problem. I think this bill is wonderful. 
Lots of people have spoken on this bill and as I am the last speaker it does not give me a lot of things to talk about. But let me put a couple of points to the House. This New Zealand legislation is a vast improvement on the USA model which people keep on saying they do not like. This bill confines itself to crimes against the person. In the USA the legislation applies to all crimes including shoplifting but in New Zealand it is about crimes against the person. This bill will not capture low-level offending. It is about serious crimes and serious criminals. The Commissioner of Police or the commissioner’s delegate will make the decision to implement or trigger the “three strikes”. So the commissioner will act as a gatekeeper. This is high-level gatekeeping unlike that in the USA version where the gatekeeping was done at street level. In New Zealand the judicial warning is fair and reasonable. This is not the case in the USA legislation. This legislation will have the effect of taking criminals off the streets without creating a huge increase in the prison population as it did in the USA. We are talking about 50 or so extra beds in 5 years’ time. 
Everyone in the sector including the most liberal person accepts that there are some criminals who should never get out of prison and this legislation will ensure that. To those people who speak in support of preventive detention I can say this legislation complements and does not replace the sentence of preventive detention. 
As I said earlier 94 percent of the submitters supported this bill. Many of them wanted to redress the disparity between the rights of offenders and those of victims. Keeping the public safe is one of the most fundamental obligations of any Government. This Government is focused on and committed to taking the tough steps needed in order to tackle violent crime and make families safer in their homes and communities. 
I also remind members that earlier an Opposition member I think it was Lianne Dalziel began her speech by calling a criminal a “gentleman”. A criminal regardless of his horrid background does not deserve the honour of being called a gentleman as criminals are far from gentle. To me a gentleman is someone like you Mr Deputy Speaker not a criminal. Criminals do not deserve to be called gentlemen but doing that shows how delusional Labour is about violent crime. 
Personally I support any legislation that effects a change that means we are tougher on crime and tougher on criminals. Although we will probably never have a crime-free society this bill reassures me that violent offenders will think twice before deciding to become recidivist offenders and that when they do become recidivist offenders they will be dealt with by a law that will not tolerate belligerent thugs who commit violent crimes over and over again. “Three strikes” and they are out.