Little Andrew: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Victims of Crime Reform Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16394. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): The issue of victims’ rights in our criminal justice system has been a subject of much debate over many years now. Much of the victims’ rights legislation that we have has been the product of previous Labour Governments because Labour has always taken that issue seriously unlike the present Government. This issue has been presided over by the laziest Minister of Justice we have had in 40 years—the laziest Minister of Justice we have had in 40 years. This bill the Victims of Crime Reform Bill is just another example of a Minister of Justice who once again fails to get to grips with the real issue at hand. She is quite happy to go tripping off to Shanghai supping up tea with her husband’s mates endorsing their products and breaching theCabinet Manual. She is quite happy to do that but when it comes down to sitting down and taking seriously the issue of victims’ rights she will not do it. This is yet another piece of victims’ rights legislation from this Government that is piecemeal that is ad hoc that lacks coherence and that is just doing bit by little bit by little bit. It is time that we actually had a Minister of Justice—such as is usually supplied by the Labour Government—who takes the issue seriously and is prepared to look at the issue as a whole and come up with a set of solutions that actually address the problems that victims are talking to the Government and indeed all MPs about.I should say notwithstanding our support for this bill—because after all something even a little something is better than nothing—that this bill clearly does not go far enough. This bill does not go far enough. It is interesting that the Minister should proudly boast about the new aspects in relation to restorative justice but let us see what it says in clause 6 of the bill about restorative justice. In new section 9 to the Victims Rights Act 2002—another fantastic piece of Labour legislation—it says that “A member of court staff a Police employee or if appropriate a probation officer must if satisfied that the necessary resources are available refer the request …” for restorative justice. There is no guarantee to victims of crime that they will have access to restorative justice. It all depends on somebody else being available to deliver it or some other resources being available in a ministry and in fact in an entire Government bureaucracy that is slowly being crimped scrimped and squeezed and that has no money to do anything. That is a hollow promise. This bill provides a hollow promise to victims of crime who would like to pursue the avenue of restorative justice. That is hardly surprising when you have a lazy Minister of Justice who passes this legislation through her consideration and through Cabinet without hardly a by your leave. No further consideration was given by the Minister on this. She just lets it sail through with a hollow promise to those victims of crime who want to seek a restorative justice response.She talks about compensation for costs for victims. There is a limited scope in this bill at the sentencing stage for some reparation of costs but that is not the issue. Whatvictims have been calling for is some advocacy assistance to negotiate the criminal justice system from the outset. From the time that they suffer a crime or are the victim of a crime and they are interviewed by the police or come into contact with the police because a family member or a close friend is the victim of a crime what they want is someone to assist them through the machinations of the criminal justice system. That is not provided for here. What they need to know is that if they have to go to court either to witness and observe it or to be a witness at it they will have their reasonable costs met. That is not provided for or at least not guaranteed in this bill. This bill is inadequate when it comes to reform of victims’ rights.The promise that Labour makes is that we will have a comprehensive cohesive and coherent piece of legislation covering all victims’ rights so that a victim of crime knows that the minute they become attached to the justice system through no choice or fault of their own they will have assistance they will know what the mechanism is and they will be led through. It is great to have some of these things here to have improvements in terms of victim impact statements and to know that you can present your victim impact statement with limited ability for it to be amended curtailed or indeed shut out at all. That is all good stuff. But actually what victims most need is to understand how the system works and to understand why it is that a defendant can get access to criminal legal aid whereas they as the victim might not get any assistance at all. They need to know that. Actually they need to know that they can get some assistance if they are out of pocket for having to go to court to hear or watch the defendants of the crime that they are part of put to justice. That is not guaranteed in this bill.So although this bill does some things although it helps in terms of victim impact reports and although it helps in terms of those appearing in the Youth Court it does not go anywhere near far enough. It is time that we actually have a Minister of Justice who is prepared to deal with the real problems when it comes to criminal justice and the place of victims in it. We have to do more than just more incremental change. We actually need to have a Government that listens to victims. We need to have a Government that listens to victims. It is all very well that in relation to perpetrators of crime and those who are convicted of it this Government has done some things in that regard. I am not sure how much consultation it had with the Sensible Sentencing Trust in that regard because it does not talk much about when it talks to the Sensible Sentencing Trust. But when it comes to victims—when it comes to victims—this Government is big on words and is big on promises but actually it is just little by little. In fact it is far too little and often far too late. We need to see something that is a lot more and a lot better.The issue for most victims is that they do not choose to be part of the criminal justice system; they are there because of the actions of another. The biggest deterrent to crime as we know is detection and bringing people before the courts. Victims need to know that when that happens—when they have been burgled assaulted violently harmed or indeed when they are the family member or close friend of somebody who has been killed at the hands of another—they can get the means to understand the system be assisted through it and have any cost that they unfairly face or reasonably face properly defrayed.We know that as this bill went through the Law Society expressed some concern about the courts system and particularly sentencing turning into a free-for-all and we need to know that the voice of victims is going to be heard but that it will not compromise the efficacious and good running of the criminal justice system. But let us go back to the critical point. It is high time after 20 years of debating and making incremental change to victims’ rights to come up with a comprehensive and cohesivepackage. Nothing less will do. This Government will not do it. Labour will do it because it is needed and it is overdue. We will hear in the rest of this debate about some of the most serious victims of crime—that is the victims of sexual crime. Their needs are very special and need to be heard and understood and other members from Labour will talk about that. We will pass this bill but we will build upon it and come up with something good for all New Zealanders and all victims of crime.