Dean Jacqui: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Bail Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 10 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2184. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 There is one fact unpalatable though it will be to the Opposition that gives the lie to the speech of the previous member Phil Goff and that is that recorded crime has dropped again under National. It is now down 4.8 percent nationally in 2011 down to a 15-year low. National is proud of its record since it came into Government in 2008.  
Another unpalatable fact perhaps to the Opposition is that before National came into office in 2008 crime was increasing and that is a fact. Gangs were growing. That is a fact. Prisons faced a critical shortage of beds. That is certainly a fact. P was seriously damaging communities and we know that for a very sad fact. And violent repeat offenders were being freed on parole and the courts were very congested. National is turning that round. National will continue to promote policies that hold offenders to account and put victims at the heart of the justice system.  
National’s goal is not only to prevent and reduce crime but also to reduce the impact of crime when it does occur by improving the responsiveness of the criminal justice system. National’s planned changes to bail laws target defendants arrested for the worst crimes and those at highest risk of offending whilst on bail.  
The main provisions of the Bail Amendment Bill are reversing the burden of proof. What this means is that the bill will reverse the burden of proof in bail decisions for those charged with serious class A drug offences such as the manufacturing of P. More than one-third of defendants arrested for serious class A drug offences go on to offend while on bail so what we are proposing is to reverse the burden of proof. This legislation will reverse the burden of proof in bail decisions for defendants charged with murder. Murder is the most serious offence in New Zealand law but it is currently subject to the same test for bail as other less serious offences. We will change this to reflect the seriousness of the charge.  
The current list of specified offences has not been reviewed since the Bail Act was first enacted so it does not reflect the risk posed by defendants charged with other serious violent and sexual offences who have a history of serious offending. So the bill will expand the list of violent and sexual offences that result in a defendant being subject to a reverse burden of proof if they have a prior history of such offending. Examples of that offending such as kidnapping assault with intent to rob and sexual conduct with a child under 12 years old will now be included. 
Another provision of this bill relates to young defendants. This bill will strengthen bail for young defendants. It will make defendants aged 17 to 19 years old subject to the standard adult tests for bail if they have previously served a prison sentence. This removes the strong presumption in favour of bail that currently applies to young people. It will allow the court to detain defendants under 17 years of age who significantly or repeatedly breach their bail conditions and it will enable police to uplift young defendants found in breach of court-imposed curfews and return them to their own homes or places where they will comply with the curfew. These tough measures matter and they will make a difference. It also means that after an arrest police will then bring the defendant before a court within 24 hours where the court will be able to order detention of the young person under 17 who is repeatedly or significantly breaching their bail and is likely to carry on doing that. 
Another provision is with regard to police bail which is granted by police before the defendant appears in court for the first time. The penalty for failure to answer police bail is increased under this bill to be an offence that carries up to 3 months’ imprisonment in addition to the current maximum $1000 fine. This Government means business. In bailable as of right provisions we will reduce the number of situations where a defendant is bailable as of right.  
The final provision I want to touch upon is the electronically monitored bail regime. We will put the electronically monitored bail regime into law to ensure that it is administered consistently. Courts have been able to impose electronic monitoring as a condition of bail since 2006. The Government has reviewed it and it appears to be an effective and a safe way of managing defendants in the community.  
This Government puts the rights of victims at the heart of all our law reforms. This bill makes a good contribution to that. We are proud of this bill and I recommend it to the House.