Jones Dail: Parole (Extended Supervision) and Sentencing Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Jones Dail: Parole (Extended Supervision) and Sentencing Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14176] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 Any party that takes law and order seriously and that voted against the Sentencing Act and the Parole Act in 2002 must surely vote against this legislation entirely. At that stage New Zealand First said the legislation was fundamentally flawed. In fact these amendments prove that it is fundamentally flawed. We have a whole raft of extensive amendments from the minority Labour Government that indicate this legislation is flawed. One cannot rectify something that is basically wrong. As I said before west Auckland had a problem with painted apple moth. We could not do something to make the painted apple moth problem better; we had to get rid of it. 
This legislation is flawed. We have to get rid of it and do something along the lines that New Zealand First proposed in 2002 and will continue to propose when it is a part of a Government of this country. We do not support parole in the way it is proposed in this legislation. We want to replace the Parole Board with a rehabilitation board with a primary objective of minimising recidivism. Offenders are not given parole and they will be in prison for a much longer time. I support the building of all the new prisons. These people should be kept in prison and for a longer time. That is why we need more prisons. 
As far as convictions are concerned some current statistics show that the longer the stay in prison the fewer crimes are committed because the criminals are in prison. If we keep criminals in prison we will not get crime. The same people commit crime again and again but if we lock them up they will not commit crime. It is a cost on the community to lock them up but maybe it will be a lesson to their families—it will tell their families that this is what happens to criminals. The second thing is that they will not be able to get back home and encourage young children to do the same thing they were led to do when they were young children. That is one of the problems in this particular area. 
We want these people to be put in jail and to stay in jail for the term of their sentence unless towards the end of their sentence there is some indication of rehabilitation on their part. The rehabilitation board would be required to consider the actual duration of imprisonment and to ensure that offenders have demonstrated remorse and have a positive attitude to rehabilitation before it considers parole. 
Statistics can prove just about anything. On page 18 of the New Zealand Police Statement of Intent 2004/2005 the recorded crime trend indicator shows an upward trend for the years from 1999 onwards. In fact since this minority Labour Government came into office the indicator shows an upward trend for total recorded violence and sexual acts and for total recorded serious violence and sexual acts. That is what this legislation is about. To a large extent it is about the behaviour of sex offenders. And what does this minority Labour Government say? It says that it will give offenders better opportunities to go out into the public. 
New Zealand First says that if the Government is serious about dealing with crime serious about making sure that people get punished and serious about making sure that victims realise the people who harm them are getting punished then it has to repeal entirely the Sentencing Act and the Parole Act and has to pass the legislation recommended by New Zealand First to show that it really is tough about law and order.