Sepuloni Carmel: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Sepuloni Carmel: Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10503] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims (Expiry and Application Dates) Amendment Bill seeks to extend the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005 passed by the fifth Labour Government. That Act regulated the awarding of compensation to prisoners for breaches of their rights and this is in line with our international obligations and with the practice in other Western democracies. 
The original Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act was about respecting the rights of both perpetrators and victims of crime allowing prisoners compensation for breaches of their rights while at the same time providing a regime whereby victims of prisoners who received compensation could make claims for damages payments of which would come out of the compensation. 
The bill currently before the House is a minor technical change extending the restrictions on the awarding of compensation for a further 2 years from 1 July 2010 until 30 June 2012. It will ensure that the victims’ claims process will also apply to compensation awarded in respect of a prisoner’s claim made between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2012 
Paul Quinn 
: It’s only a two-page bill; you don’t need to read from speech notes. 
CARMEL SEPULONI 
: While the current Act states that the awarding of compensation expires on 1 July 2010 and the victims’ claims process applies only to compensation claims before that date this bill extends the provision of the Act by 2 years I say to Mr Quinn. 
Labour will support this bill going to the Justice and Electoral Committee as it makes only a minor technical change. But we do have a question for the Government. When will the Government act on the promises that it made at election time? They were promises made to protect the rights of victims of crime but to date we have seen no evidence whatsoever of that happening. These promises were made during the election campaign yet since then victims have been worse off in practice. In particular sexual abuse victims are worse off. They are no longer able to access the support that they need under accident compensation because of new rules put in place by National. Instead of struggling with the barriers to accident compensation funding that National has put in place sexual abuse victims have turned to Rape Crisis centres for help but these centres have had their funding also cut by National. Sexual abuse victims feel betrayed by this Government which promised to make their lives better but in fact has made them worse. 
We heard Mr Chester Borrows earlier discussing the fact that it does not matter which bucket of funding is being accessed to address the needs of these victims but the issue is that this Government is not making any funding available for victims. So when the Government takes away the opportunities through accident compensation that were afforded to victims for the counselling that they need there is no other avenue for them to go down with regard to getting the support that they need which is sometimes a matter of life or death for individuals and has far-reaching impacts in terms of repercussions. The fact that victims are unwell and have not received the support that they need has impacts not only on them as individuals but also on their wider family network and on New Zealand as a society. 
National promised action on crime rights so that fewer New Zealanders would be victims of crime. However the latest crime statistics show how hollow that promise really was. The number of crime victims is growing not decreasing under this Government. In 2009 violent crime rose by close to 10 percent and murders rose by 25 percent and this is unacceptable. Those voters who bought into the National Party slogan that it was basically going to do away with crime altogether must be sitting there now and asking themselves what they voted for. Although National and ACT claim that their “three strikes” law will help to prevent crime and deter criminals officials have warned us that it may even force our homicide rate up even higher. 
I challenge this Government to act on its election promise. Fewer New Zealanders should be victims of crime and those who are victims should have their rights protected. We do not need hyped-up policies like a “three strikes” law that may not change crime statistics at all or may even result in more crime. We need a society where New Zealanders are safer from crime and a society where victims are helped not hindered on the road to recovery. The current Act states that the awarding of compensation to victims expires on 1 July 2010 and the victims’ claims process applies only to compensation in respect of claims made before that date. This bill will basically extend that provision to 30 June 2010. 
National made some lofty promises at the election about looking after victims’ rights but in practice victims are worse off under this National Government. Sexual abuse victims are no longer able to get the support they need under accident compensation thanks to the changes that the National Government has made. National and ACT are pushing through a “three strikes” law that officials have warned will make things worse not better for victims. It will result in fewer guilty pleas and more appeals meaning that more victims will have to go through lengthy and difficult trials and appeals processes. Officials have also warned that the new law could lead to an increased rate of homicide. Why is the Government not doing anything to prevent more people from becoming victims of crime? The latest crime statistics show that the number of victims is growing not decreasing under that Government and that is something New Zealanders are genuinely concerned about. 
I want to touch on Labour’s record on victims’ rights because it is pertinent to what we are discussing at the moment. In 2002 Labour introduced and passed the Sentencing Act which introduced a presumption in favour of reparation and it resulted in the sentence being used more frequently. In 2002 the Sentencing Act also recognised the potential of restorative justice processes to make offenders more accountable to victims and it enabled courts to take both financial and non-financial offers of amends by an offender into account. 
Labour introduced and passed the Victims’ Rights Act in 2002. It extended a number of rights to victims such as rights to information and the ability to have input into sentencing decisions through victim impact statements. In 2003 the Ministry of Justice launched a campaign to trace those who owed money and it spent $385000 on advertising an 0800 number for people to call. The establishment of new collection centres further bolstered the collection and disbursement of reparation and $9 million was allocated in the 2003 Budget for that purpose. 
Labour passed the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act in 2005. It ensures that victims of inmates who are awarded compensation could claim against that compensation. Labour introduced the Pay or Stay initiative in September 2006 which enables the Ministry of Justice to stop people who have unpaid fines or reparations if they are travelling overseas or stop them on their return to New Zealand. The Evidence Act 2006 provides for the needs of vulnerable witnesses and victims by making provisions for witnesses to give evidence in alternative ways such as from behind a screen via closed-circuit television or on pre-recorded video. 
Those are only a few of the things that Labour did to protect the rights of victims. I could go on with that list but I will not. At the end of the day we need to remind this Government that National campaigned very hard prior to the 2008 election on the fact that it would reduce crime and would protect the rights of victims. To date 15 months later we have seen no evidence of that. 
Labour will support this bill at its first reading because we have a commitment to the victims’ claims process and because we believe that the National Government can and should be doing more for victims’ rights. Thank you very much.