Cosgrove Clayton: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12084. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 This has been an interesting debate. Mr Guy—the second or third Minister I think who has dealt with this piece of legislation tonight—described the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill as straightforward. He is right; it is a straightforward piece of legislation which in theory given that everybody in this House apart from the Greens and the Maori Party supports it should have flown through the House with a high degree of ease. The bill may be straightforward but the issue of assistance and support for victims is not. 
I say again that the Labour Party is supporting the passage of the bill for a very simple reason: we wrote the Act it amends. A member opposite said we helped it go through the House. No no we wrote it and we passed it when we were in Government. The Government today is extending its provisions by 2 years and we have no problem with that. This bill extends the provisions we put in the Act which we wrote and passed. 
The bill is straightforward but the issue is not. Throughout this debate it has been very instructive to listen to the words that have not been spoken to listen to the silence exhibited by especially the ACT Party. We have raised an issue as an acid test of one’s commitment to victims. I agree with my colleagues who say they suspect that no one in this Parliament does not have a genuine belief that victims should be supported despite all the political gasbagging that we have heard from some people on the other side of the House. The ACT Party believes that it has a monopoly on supporting victims that it comes from a higher plane and that everybody else’s commitment to victim support is lower than its commitment. I say to those members that their silence on this issue tonight has been absolutely deafening. On the one hand Mr Garrett and those members say that they support victims; on the other hand on the issue raised tonight that this Government which ACT props up has pulled the rug out from under victims of sexual crime and sexual abuse by cutting their funding aided and abetted by the ACT Party which purports to support victims we have not heard one word tonight about that policy stance. 
It is interesting that every Minister who has been in the chair or who has introduced a stage of this bill has not made one contribution that addresses that issue. The only member who had the guts to raise it and at least address it was Chester Borrows and I think he made a reasonably robust contribution. Chester Borrows said—and it was tantamount to admitting that his Government had cut funding—the Government will make addressing the issue a priority. He said that and I respect him for it. But not one other member opposite did so. 
Government members prattled on and listed all sorts of legislation that they had passed and that is an undeniable fact in this House. The quality of much of that legislation is in question as is its effectiveness or lack of it to support victims but it is an undeniable fact that this Government has fired through various Acts that it claims will assist victims—and the jury is out on that. But that does not negate the issue that has been raised time and time again tonight about the lost souls and there are a number of them who have committed suicide because they could not get the support and the funding that they needed and that they used to get under the last Government and that is an undeniable fact— 
Hon Tariana Turia 
: Prove it. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: The member should look at the last Budget and at the general policy statement on the bill. That is the first time the member Tariana Turia has squeaked any words in this House about that issue. All she has done tonight is grin about it and laugh about it. I say again to the member that when a constituent comes to her office who is a victim of sexual abuse and cannot get funding because Nick Smith and the National Government have cut that funding I wonder what she will say to that woman man or young person. Will she grin and say as she did tonight “Prove it.”? Thanks to her vote she could say that she is part of the problem because she voted for that cut she aided and abetted it and she supports it today. The proof of that is that not once in this debate did she get up and express even mild disapproval on behalf of those lost souls the men and women who every day and every night wait for some assistance. 
Mr Borrows said that the Government will make it a priority. Good on him. At least he is prepared to say that. But sadly the problem with Mr Borrows is that he ain’t in a position to deliver. I am sure that he is knocking on the doors of his Ministers and saying that they have to do it they have to make it a priority an agency has to fund those people and something has to be done. He is a constituent member; he has probably had these folks in his office. But not one other Government member has addressed the issue. Government members talk about everything else. They talk about the fact that they have passed legislation for victims’ rights and other things. That is all well and good but not one member from any party opposite will address this issue apart from “Miss Laugh A Lot” down there who has grinned and laughed about the issue throughout the debate. Not one of them will say that they will make it a priority that they will make it happen tonight tomorrow or on Monday at Cabinet. 
My colleague Brendon Burns mentioned Ken Clearwater a constituent of mine who is doing the Lord’s work with male survivors of sexual abuse. Ken Clearwater and his clients wait for help every day. They waited for help in the Budget before last and they waited for help in the last Budget. Every man woman and young person who is the victim of a sexual crime has waited for the help they used to get under the last Government. And I say to Ms Turia that I do not have to prove it. The proof is every person who got counselling psychological assistance and their medical needs met by accident compensation over the 9 years of the Labour Government. The proof is the men and women who survived the trauma of sexual abuse and sexual crime because over the 9 years of the Labour Government they got accident compensation funding and they got assistance. I say to Ms Turia that that is the proof—that they are alive today. That is the proof that the system is broken. 
An injustice has been perpetrated and it has been aided and abetted by every last one of the members opposite who would not stand up to take a call—there is a word for that and I would love to use it—to even talk about the constituents who have walked into their offices. They will talk about everything else. They will talk about legislation the Bail Act or anything else. I ask them what they will say to the constituents in their electorates who walk into their offices. Many will not walk in. Because of the shameful acts that were done to them they will hide in places they will hide from their families and they will not ask for help. They hope and pray that the Government will stand by them. Because of the nature of the crimes perpetrated against them they feel ostracised and they rely on the Government to protect the most vulnerable. 
I would have thought there was not a lot of politics in this issue. I would have thought there was a lot positive politics to be gained for a Government and a Minister that did as Mr Borrows did and said that that assistance should be made a priority. But not one Minister—not the Minister for ACC not the Minister of Health and not Nathan Guy—did that nor any member of the two parties that are led by the nose like lambs to the slaughter including the “tough on crime” party. Not even the Sensible Sentencing Trust has ever decried the fact that the National Government has cut the funding for the victims of sexual crime. I wonder why it would not make a comment. Why would it not express anger? I challenge members opposite to use Mr Borrows as an example and at the conclusion of this debate get off their chuffs go to their various Ministers and demand funding for those victims. I do not care whether it comes from the Accident Compensation Corporation; I do not care where it comes from. But they are the victims. That is the acid test not a couple of clauses to extend the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act. The acid test is whether that crew over there will help the most vulnerable who have nightmares every day and night because of what was done to them.