Borrows Chester: General Debate 
Borrows Chester: General Debate 
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CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I rise to take a call in this debate because I am so pleased at the advances that we have made in the justice sector and with the law and order issues that have prevailed in New Zealand for a long time. It is great to have been able to put together some ideas when in Opposition to win an election in 2008 under the leadership of John Key and then to put some initiatives before the select committees and the House. They are initiatives such as short-term protection orders the offender levy system the increase in measures against gangs new initiatives to tackle P new powers to confiscate the proceeds of crime tackling violent youth crime and giving young offenders a fresh start strengthening some bail laws that really needed to be dealt to after some changes made by the previous Government in October 2008 putting an extra 600 police officers on the front line by the end of 2011 and—probably most critical for victims—taking DNA samples from people when they are arrested for imprisonable offences. 
It is great to see for instance through the victim compensation scheme that victims will be able to access more from the taxpayer to assist them in recovery from crimes against them and their families. There is enhanced homicide support for families to attend court hearings and to do good by those who have been stolen from at the hands of violent offenders. There are enhanced court services for the victims of sexual violence—for instance a payment of $250 to address the immediate costs in providing evidence in sex crimes like the replacement of clothing access to some immediate counselling access to some immediate help in respect of the victims’ recovery and having child-minding facilities paid for by the taxpayer so they are able to attend court. Returning to families of homicide victims there is $124 a day for family members towards the costs of attending court—child-minding accommodation meals and those sorts of things—so that they can take part in the proceedings. There is a funeral grant of up to $4500 for families of homicide victims. 
Those things are all very important to make sure we refocus our criminal justice system on the victims of crime instead of concentrating overly on offenders and listening to those people who are screaming hard on behalf of them. For instance the Sensible Sentencing Trust wants to go down a harder and harder line without being precise enough to cater to the real concerns of victims’ families. 
What did we hear under the previous administration? I have a couple of examples. Several promises were made for instance on changes to the domestic violence law. Prior to the 2005 election Labour promised to “Evaluate amendments to the … Act to ensure its effectiveness for example through considering whether greater flexibility is necessary in the types and coverage of protection orders. Greater flexibility might allow for interim protection orders to be granted and for coverage of orders to be varied where that is in the interests of dependent children.” When we got to the end of 2007 a month after National’s announcement of on-the-spot protection orders the then Minister of Justice Annette King released a discussion document proposing changes to the Act including the addition of protection orders very similar to National’s. In June 2008 7 months later Annette King announced that changes would be introduced by July. Nothing happened. In September Annette King said: “We undertook a major review of the Domestic Violence Act we consulted widely the legislation has recently gone through Cabinet and it will be in this House in due course.” “Due course” meant that 2 days after Parliament was adjourned for the election fight in 2008 that bill was dropped into the House. 
Do members want to look at another one? It is on victims’ compensation. On 4 July 1994 Helen Clark said: “Labour also intends to consult widely on an appropriate victims’ compensation scheme.” In Labour’s 1996 election campaign she promised to investigate the establishment of a separate criminal injuries compensation scheme. In 2005 she promised more but nothing ever happened.