Collins Judith: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Collins Judith: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:13037] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 Firstly I have to apologise for members on this side of the Chamber being too soft on the Minister of Corrections. We have been sitting around saying: “Oh the poor old Minister; he’s trying to stand on principle.” Rubbish! Absolute rubbish! There is no principle in this bill; it is all ideology. It is ideology from a weak Minister who took over from Margaret Wilson—an even weaker more ideologically pure Minister—and who has not had enough gumption to stand up to that woman and say: “No I’m going to do the right thing.” The Minister knows very well that this is a stupid bill. It has been wandering around the House for 2 years and he knows why. The Minister has not had enough gumption to stand up to his party which is full of ideologues none of whom has ever done a decent day’s work—not one. He has not had enough gumption to do that. He sits there in the chair and does nothing. He has a giggle with little Darren Hughes the youngest person around Parliament who is here to organise Helen Clark’s handbag and that is all. The Minister sits there smiling like a Cheshire cat thinking: “This woman’s on to me. She knows I’m just an ideologue.” 
As for the Greens I have always had a bit of time for them—I know that is strange—but I will not feel that way any more. I actually thought they believed in a few things. They might be bizarre they might make totally off-the-wall comments but I have always thought they genuinely believed in what they were talking about. But I know they have visited the Auckland Central Remand Prison and have seen the great work that the private prison managers are doing. They have seen the results they have heard the evidence about the rate of suicide in public prisons compared with the private prison but they stick their heads down talk about something totally unimportant and say they are going to get rid of that prison because it is not ideologically pure. They are not Greens; they are socialists. They are leftist socialists and they even make this Minister look relatively moderate and that is a shocking thing to say. 
I wonder who is driving this measure. Are the Greens driving it or the Minister or the Minister’s bosses? We know the answer: it is the unions it is the Greens and it is the leftist vote in this Parliament. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: It’s actually the Labour vote. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Labour is the leftist vote— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: And proud of it. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Those members admit they are proud of it. The next time they talk about being centre-left what do we say to that? We say they are totally left. They are ideologues. There is nothing in their argument except ideology. They do not care one scrap about any prisoner who commits suicide who goes through torment in the public prison system. They do not care. If any prisoners who are taken out of the private prison system commit suicide their blood will be on the Government’s hands and on the Minister’s hands because they knew that that would happen. 
What could they have done about it? They could have stopped this bill. The Minister had the opportunity to do that. When Margaret Wilson got shuffled out of this portfolio as has happened with most other portfolios she has been involved in—shuffled out as fast as anything—this Minister had an opportunity to do the decent thing but he could not bring himself to do it because he would have had to show a bit of spine. He could not do that so he likes to go around grinning like a Cheshire cat and making out he is friendly to everybody but he knows exactly what is going on. 
Where is the Maori caucus? Where are Nanaia Mahuta and John Tamihere? They are not here. Unfortunately Tariana Turia is not able to vote on this matter. We know she would be voting with us on it. We know she would. The Maori caucus which must have had every representation possible from Maori knows the truth of what we are saying. What are those members going to do? They are going to give in—roll over and have their tummies tickled. They are going to roll over and let the Government do whatever it wants.