I am not forgetting the victim. I am coming to the victim. As neighbours to both the victim and his or her family and to the perpetrator, the offender, we have a duty. We have a duty to the victim's family to bind the wounds and share the sorrow. We also have a duty to the offender to heal and try to reconcile that person with the society which he has foully wronged. In my view, our obligation to do that extends to offering some glimmer of hope to that person, some opportunity when good behaviour can result in something of value.
In any approach to this bill we can all win if we go for reconciliation and release because those things go together.
In conclusion I quote a speech that I think fell on deaf ears in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice . I will try it today because it sums up my argument very briefly:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptered sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.
I have spoke thus much to indicate my reasons for voting against this bill.