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DNA BILL SUBMISSION

BY SENSIBLE SENTENCING TRUST

Our Submission is as follows:

Criminal Data Bank

What we are proposing is to replace the existing schedule of offences with legislation that makes it compulsory for everyone who is arrested to supply DNA.

1952......179 Violent offences..... 2.2 Million People 50 years later..... 3.8 million.....44,960 ....

· The horrific rise in Crime and particularly violent crime over the last 30 years can be credited directly to deliberate policy changes made by various political parties.

· No doubt these changes were made in good faith, no one could have foreseen the horrific consequences that would result.

· We are not pointing the finger, most of you in this room would not have even been aware that the incremental changes were taking place.

· Indeed any single change on it's own would not have had such a disastrous result, but compounded the result has been catastrophic for New Zealand.

INDIVIDUAL POLICY CHANGES

· As we have travelled the country this last 2 years building support for Sensible Sentencing people have asked, " Why don't we reverse those changes and go back to where we were 30 years ago".

· It is not that simple, we now have two generations and a complete culture that has evolved, matured and brought up their families under this system.

· As I have said, none of us in this room can be blamed or in any way held responsible for what has happened, most of you politicians have inherited this politically correct experiment.

· We believe it is the responsibility of every New Zealander to take ownership; it is our problem, all of ours.

· Most of us in this room have grown up during the best years this country has had to offer, while we have been growing up and raising our children this country has slowly but surely become one of the more violent nations in the western world.

· Say what you like about the UN figures, you and I, all of us know the level of violence, whatever statistic you choose to listen too, is not acceptable.

· So what do we do about it?

· We have the ideal opportunity with his proposed legislation to do something constructive.

· As the shambles that I have explained has been allowed to develop other factors have been taking place.

· As the crime statistics escalated and shortsighted stopgap or panic policy changes were put in place, these actually compounded the problem.

· Legal Aid. This was probably introduced with good intentions, but in effect as defence lawyers and other organisations realised that there was a bottomless pit of taxpayer money available, many got on the gravy train, now they are not simply on the gravy train, they are milking it.

· As I am sure you all know Mr Goff has instigated an overview of this whole Legal Aid question. So I am going to assume we all agree Legal Aid is a major problem for New Zealand. But what you may not realise is the effect this has had on the overall increase in crime. As the Legal Aid budget has increased, so has crime.

· $110,000 in 1971 - to a budgeted figure of $100 million last year.

· We have spoken to Law students at various Universities and have been made aware that the students have been taught how to maximise every little advantage for their clients, the criminal, many with multiple offences, and some legal aid defences costing over 1 million dollars of taxpayer money.

· Defence lawyers have been taught to use every trick in the book, as well as develop a few new ones to get their client off, after all Legal Aid is paying.

· Any taxpayer-funded scheme in the long run has the opposite affect to what was intended. So while our defence lawyers have developed new tricks to ensure their clients are not convicted, our crime fighting agency, the police, have had to develop counter measures.

· The risk of getting a wrongful conviction under the current environment has grown, as the truth has nothing to do with justice. Ask any defence lawyer, our adversarial system is all about winning, and the truth does not matter.

· While people may wish for the good old days, it is not going to happen, we can not wind the clock back, what we can do though is use the development in technology to ensure Justice is actually done.

· DNA can be used to restore people's faith in our judicial system.

· DNA can be part of the defence mechanism to reverse this evil eating away at our society, we need to realise that the politically correct social climbers who have jumped on this crime band wagon will vigorously oppose introduction of legislation that will give law enforcement agencies such an effective crime fighting tool.

· DNA will be as effective and useful to prove innocence, as it will be to prove guilt.

· We have all heard stories of innocent people being found guilty on circumstantial evidence and spending time in prison. In fact the recent release of many violent criminals in the United States was prompted by this very situation.

· Cases like David Doherty who was convicted of rape only to be proven innocent by the advancement of DNA technology.

· None of us want unsafe convictions.

· On the other side of the equation we have the situation where 90% of the crime is being committed by 5% of the population, DNA technology can be used to ensure repeat offenders are identified earlier.

· We also believe that DNA has another very important use in our fight against Crime

· All refugees to give DNA as part of their processing

· With the world wide escalation in terrorism New Zealand is being seen as an idyllic destination by many, most are simply wanting a better lifestyle, but some are playing a very active part in our criminal world.

· Our already overworked Police are now being expected to understand cultural sensitivities as well as be interpreters of numerous different languages. The communal type living arrangements compounded with the language barriers make it extremely difficult, if not virtually imposable for the police to do their job.

· Compulsory DNA testing as part of the processing for all refugees would not only save this country an awful lot of money, it would be a very effective deterrent for those who see NZ as an easy target for their criminal activities.

· The proof of innocence, far outweighs the proof of guilt as the incentive to introduce such legislation.

· Probably more so with refugees, from what we are led to believe the criminal element are only too willing to play on the language difficulties to implicate the more gullible and innocent relatives or fellow citizens.

The article in our submission is a good example why we want to introduce Legislation to DNA test all refugees.

The young lady mentioned in the article was ganged raped by 4 men living not far from where she lived. Although DNA samples were removed from her, the police are unable to make an arrest because of language barriers and our laws.

SUMMARY

· In summary I would like to refer you to an extract from Rudolph Giuliani Leadership book, quote " We caught those murderers and many other criminals and also exonerated some who were falsely accused or suspected because New York City analyses more DNA than anywhere else in the country".

· I am sure we all agree that knowledge is something we all strive to improve, even perfect. That, in reality is all DNA is, simply improving and broadening our knowledge base, it is not some invasion of our human rights.

· The real invasion of our human rights has occurred over the last 30 years with the escalation of crime. Sensible Sentencing Trust believes that society has a right to expect a certain standard of behaviour from all of its members, all of the time.

· After all, the real victims of crime are you and I, as society declines; YOU AND I PAY.

· For every "Human Right" there is an obligation, for every privilege there is a duty.

· We cannot have "Rights without Responsibilities"

· You will have noticed that I have left out reference to Jules Mikus, who brutally murdered Teresa Cormack even though he is mentioned in our submission. That is because nothing I can say or do would be as powerful as coming from a lady who has earned the right to be before this Select Committee more than anyone I know.

· An oral submission was then presented by Kelly Piggott. Teresa Cormack's Mother.