Tremain Chris: Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tremain Chris: Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on the Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill. Despite Mr Cosgrove speaking about political theatre he was pretty unclear about whether his party would support this bill’s referral to a select committee. I have a feeling that there is a fair amount of political theatre going on on that side of the House and that Labour members are supporting the referral of the bill to a select committee. That is political theatre indeed. 
The Government is here today it was here yesterday it was here the day before that and it was here the day before Christmas to deliver on the promises and the commitments that we took to the public at the election in 2008. The New Zealand public are out there singing to the hills that they are finally seeing a party that is delivering on the promises it made during an election campaign and delivering in spades whether in terms of the commitments we made regarding taxation health education or infrastructure. We are here in the House delivering upon the issues that we took to the electorate. In the area of taxation it has been great to see the small to medium sized enterprises bill. It was also great to see the commitment we made about restoring our district health board in Hawke’s Bay be ticked off on. In terms of education it is great to see national standards being rolled out and in the area of infrastructure it is great to see some fantastic projects including the Matahorua Gorge project which has been brought forward in Hawke’s Bay. That is absolutely outstanding. 
But in respect of the law and order policy there is probably not a Minister who has spent more time working since Christmas than Mr Simon Power has. We need to acknowledge the effort that that gentleman has put into the law and order portfolio in order to make sure that he delivers on the promises and commitments he brought to the public at the election. We need to acknowledge not only Mr Power but also his team— 
Paul Quinn 
: Not skiing overseas somewhere. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: No he was not skiing overseas. His team have worked until midnight and past to deliver these bills to the House. It is fantastic. I think we should acknowledge the hard work they have done as well as Simon Power. 
This bill is an initial response to the Government’s concerns about how our society should respond to the financial and emotional costs that fall on the victims of crime particularly on the victims of serious crimes such as murder sexual violation and grievous assault. But that is not quite correct: it is actually a response to the public’s concerns and this Government—unlike the Labour Government—actually responds to the concerns of the public. We have been out there listening and we are here responding because it is the public over a number of years who have been saying the Government should get out there look after victims put a victims’ compensation scheme in and deliver compensation—the Government should do something. Here we have members on the Opposition side of the Chamber talking about political theatre but we are actually delivering on something and now the bill is going to a select committee where the opportunity will be there for it to be kicked around. We will be able to look at the different opportunities with regard to this bill there. I am confident that we will see a very robust sound bill come out of the select committee. It will be one that the public of New Zealand will be proud of. I think that is absolutely fantastic. 
I will talk about three particular cases from my own electorate that have been very difficult cases to handle as an electorate MP. The first one came up only a few months after I was elected back in 2005. It was the Mohaka rape case whereby a young woman had been stalked by her neighbour in Napier. The gentleman was a P user. He bundled her up in his car took her out to the Mohaka Forest and did unmentionable things to her. That poor woman had very little if any support. We as a community had to rally behind her to fund-raise out of the community even just to pay for replacing some of her clothes that had been taken away for sampling for DNA purposes and for other reasons. It was appalling. I think that this is the type of legislation that can put together a fund to help men and women—particularly women such as that woman—in such situations. 
The second case I will talk about is a case that involved a child sex offender in Napier who had been sent to Napier from Auckland and housed in a Child Youth and Family home next door to a young woman. That gentleman was not looked after as he should have been. We can spread blame around but effectively the caregivers did not look after that gentleman. He jumped the fence into the young lady’s backyard not once or twice but seven or eight times. She had a young daughter and initially thought it was not much of a problem and that he was just one of the neighbour’s boys jumping the fence. Then she found out that the fella who was jumping into her backyard was a convicted sex offender. One can just imagine the terror that that young woman and her daughter must have felt. It was appalling. And where was the help for that young woman? Once again we had to lobby for support to actually get her shifted from that home because it was owned within the family and to get all the legal fees paid so that she could move to another home out of that particular area. A victims’ compensation scheme will help. It might not provide all those costs but it is certainly a step in the right direction. That is what the New Zealand public have been asking for: just a small contribution or some sort of contribution.  
The next case I will talk about is a much more recent case in Hawke’s Bay: the Ongaonga case. Young Mr McCutcheon was murdered outside the Ongaonga pub when he went to help a woman who was being whacked by a gang member. His young family a wife and three daughters aged 6 4 and 2 have been left on their own without the husband and father who was to have been there for the rest of their lives. It is unthinkable what that woman and her family will have to go through. So this legislation again is a step in the right direction towards providing some form of compensation. I will not stand here and say it will deliver the earth because it would be difficult to do that. But it will be a form of reparation that will actually help with some of the costs and support that a family like that needs. We all grieve for a family like that. We all sit back and say “My God! Why should a woman and her family have to go through that?”. It is just unthinkable.  
I am confident that this bill will be a step in the right direction taking small steps to get there. It will be going to a select committee where it will be looked at in detail and we will come out of that with a very strong bill. The initial fund will be funded by the $50 levy and I am sure that the levy will be debated in the select committee. I am sure that that issue will be thrown around and there will be submissions on it. Whether the levy is enough will be a matter of debate in submissions I am sure. But the fund will be precipitated by an amount of $5.8 million from the recently disbanded Sentencing Council and the $90000 that will be made available by disbanding the Criminal Justice Advisory Board. The levy is just a small amount to get the fund going. I say to Mr Cosgrove who was talking about political theatre that real money is actually going into this thing. There is real money to start it off.  
I am absolutely proud to be standing here tonight as a member of the National Party delivering on the promises that we took to the election. We said to the New Zealand public that yes we had been listening to what they had to say. We had been hearing that they wanted to see more support for victims and the establishment of a victims’ compensation scheme. Tonight we are here delivering that scheme. Thank you.