Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:621;Page:16707] 
5.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: When is he expecting to introduce legislation making changes to prisoner compensation procedures? 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Before the end of the year. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Has the Government yet secured the support of United Future or the Greens for his proposal? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Until I have finalised the legislation I will not pass it to any member of the House. I myself have not seen it yet. But I would be very surprised if for example the member’s own party would not be supportive of such legislation unless of course he wants the old practice to keep on going on. 
Moana Mackey 
: What steps is he taking to prevent inmates from making windfall gains from compensation for abuse of their rights? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Three steps basically. First a review is under way to ensure that breaches of rights either do not occur or are dealt with promptly. Secondly payments will be restricted to exceptional circumstances and where complaints avenues have first been used. Thirdly any money that is actually paid would be held in trust to allow victims to make the first call on it to compensate for the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of inmates. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Does the Minister believe that criminals such as Michael Anthony Manihera a convicted murderer and Alan Wayne Mareikura a man who committed aggravated burglary and forced a husband to watch his wife being raped will fall into the category of “exceptional circumstances”; and why would the Minister run the risk that some liberal judge will decide that those people should be entitled to compensation when that Minister will not stop these payments in their steps? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The measures I just announced in response to the previous question indicate that I will do everything possible to stop inmates from wrongly receiving compensation. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Retrospective. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The member just mentioned “retrospective”. When he was the Minister of Justice he railed against retrospectivity except immediately before the election when he made retrospective law that was overturned within 8 months by the Court of Appeal. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There are too many interjections from one source. [ 
Interruption 
] Not while I am talking. 
Ron Mark 
: Will the Minister having just said that he will do everything he can to prevent those payments from being made bring his Minister of Corrections to account for the sloppy operation poor management practices and even illegal activities that have gone on over the last 5 years in his own Department of Corrections that have resulted in prisoner abuse in charges being laid and in compensatory payments being made; will he bring his own Minister to heel? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: As I recall the compensation cases that have just been dealt with by the court were about the behaviour modification regime introduced in 1998 when National was in Government and when New Zealand First had just ceased supporting that party in power. 
Stephen Franks 
: In view of the Minister’s statement about retrospectivity and his eagerness to do everything possible I seek leave at the end of question time to introduce my bill at least as an interim measure which the Minister might replace with his when he eventually gets one. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to do that. Is there any objection? There is.