Bill passes to remove taxpayer funding for cultural reports

Cultural reports as part of sentencing will no longer be paid for by the taxpayer, after a bill passed in Parliament this morning.

It's part of the Government's 100 day plan - with the deadline fast approaching.

The bill, the Legal Services Amendment Bill, passed its third reading shortly before 9.30am today, under urgency in Parliament.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the reports - also called Section 27 reports - would now "return to their original purpose" and "put an end to what has become a cottage industry costing the taxpayers millions with no benefits to the real victims of crime".

“When section 27 of the Sentencing Act was introduced more than 20 years ago, it was intended to allow an offender’s background to be explained verbally to the Court by a person known to them, such as a friend or relative.

“However, in recent years the provision of written reports prepared by a person previously unknown to the offender has become common practice."

He said as a result legal aid funding for the reports had increased from about $40,000 in 2017, to more than $7 million in the last financial year.

“It’s also resulted in further discounts at sentencing, something the Government is widely concerned about."

Once the new bill was enacted, the reports would be excluded from legal aid funding.

“This fulfils a key commitment under the coalition Government’s 100-day plan and is important step towards restoring law and order.”

Following Royal Assent there will be a two-week transitional phase before the Act commences.

A prison abolitionist group - People Against Prisons Aotearoa - has previously described the policy, which was campaigned on in the election, as "racist".

Spokesperson Emmy Rākete said removing legal aid funding for reports will result in "more ill-informed and inappropriately long prison sentences".

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Rākete said axing public funding for cultural reports would disproportionately impact Māori and working class people as only those who could afford the reports would have access to them.

"There is no fiscal argument for ending cultural report funding—they pay for themselves by reducing state spending on incarceration."