Prisoner compensation bill a lottery, says MP

Government MP Russell Fairbrother has labelled his Justice Minister's prisoner compensation bill a "lottery" for victims and suggested principles, not emotion, were needed "to guide us through this mess".

The comments were made yesterday at the first public select committee hearing into the Prisoners and Victims Claims Bill and will annoy Justice Minister Phil Goff.
Mr Goff is already under fire over the controversial legislation, which was hastily drafted last year after concern about payments worth $130,000 were awarded to five Paremoremo inmates kept in illegal conditions.

More claims have been filed and the bill aims to make it tougher for inmates to get compensation and easier for their victims to sue them for the money.

But Mr Fairbrother, formerly a senior criminal lawyer, suggested the bill would not resolve issues involving victim compensation or support and may be unfair, as it would result in some getting money while others missed out.

"What worries me about this bill is that it makes a lottery, so that some people who deserve it get compensated and others who deserve it don't."

Later, addressing the Catholic justice advocacy group Caritas appearing before the committee, he suggested emotions rather than principles were guiding the debate. He asked the group: "Are there any principles we should be looking to to guide us through this mess?"

Mr Goff's former Associate Justice Minister, Lianne Dalziel, also raised concerns about whether victims' issues had been adequately considered, asking whether financial compensation was the right way to go.

"But there's this other thing that kind of feels to me like we're not quite getting our finger on it and it's the impact on the victims of crime and whether that has to be dealt with in a financial way."

One of the prisoners currently claiming compensation is Michael Anthony Manihera, who murdered publican Ian Comrie in 1997.

Mr Comrie's three adult children told the committee the matter had opened an "old wound" and said no prisoner should be entitled to compensation.

Darren Comrie said the family did not want compensation themselves as the process of trying to seek it would be painful.

Val Burr, whose daughter was murdered in 2002, said those convicted of serious crimes should never be compensated.

But she wanted victims' rights strengthened, saying that, as a solo mother, the financial costs of coping with her daughter's death were prohibitive.

Caritas strongly opposed the bill, saying further barriers to prisoner compensation let the state off the hook.

The group said there were better ways to deal with victim compensation, which should focus on support rather than financial compensation.