National introduced a riveting new initiative yesterday – a compensation scheme for victims. The way it works is that every criminal pays $50 to the victim of his or her crime. National claims this will generate $5 million of revenue.

All I can see is that each victim will get $50, less the cost of administration, less the average number of offenders that don’t pay the levy…leaving the victim in the vicinity of $12.84.

Will the victim be taxed on that amount?

The NZ Herald reports:

“Victims of crime have been neglected for too long,” Mr Key said. “It’s time we gave them the support they deserve. A National Government will re-empower victims of crime.”

How is giving victims $50 empowering them?

How is making the offender pay $50 punishing them?

Mr Key says the levy (fine) “would help victims with one-off expenses not covered by ACC or other state help, such as travel to court and additional counselling”

Oh please…

One thought on “Victim compensation”

  1. I agree Skinny. Screw the victims! And anyone who wants help them! 😉

    I don’t think it’s a case of each victim getting $50 each. The articles says “funded by a levy of about $50 on all offenders at sentencing.” which I would read to mean that that is where the inputs come from whereas the outputs are “one-off expenses not covered by ACC or other state help, such as travel to court and additional counselling” which I imagine are unique to each case…

    Will the victim be taxed on that amount? I’m guessing not because the word they used was expenses. So just like you don’t pay tax on business expenses… you probably wouldn’t here. It sounds like less of a compensation scheme and more of a expense claim service for victims. I’d support almost anything in our justice system that focuses on victims rather than offenders.

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