Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): One thing that the present Minister of Transport cannot be responsible for is the appalling maths of that member who's just taken his seat. What he completely overlooks is that under the previous Government New Zealanders would be paying more for their petrol because of the 20c excise duty they had put on petrol over future years. New Zealanders will be paying less. The great thing is that New Zealanders living in the regions will have better-quality roads to drive on safer roads to drive on which is something that the previous Government could not give a damn about.That party when they were in Government was the coulda woulda shoulda" party. Well they're certainly that now. It is just incredible how little they got done and how much they try to take credit for now. Where do you begin? Take the Privacy Act. In 2012 they said they were going to rewrite the Privacy Act. We were going to have new privacy laws. And they did nothing. So it has taken this Government to introduce a new rewritten privacy law that's fit for the 21st century and takes us ahead.What about the year-and-a-day rule? Remember they said "Right we're going to get right on to it—right on to fixing that small element of the Crimes Act that is standing in the way of important prosecutions that should be taken." What did they do? Absolutely nothing. So it's taken this Government to actually introduce it. It didn't stop the members opposite claiming it was all their work; it was their idea. But they couldn't do what mattered most and that is to make the change.And then there's the law of contempt. Chris Finlayson—a member opposite who commands enormous respect on this side of the House—admitted that he has spent 10 years trying to convince his colleagues that this area of the law should change. And he may not be wrong. The Law Commission wrote a report on it. He struggled for 10 years but could not persuade his colleagues. He had to fall on the small matter of the lottery of the member's bill process to get his law up and he's done it. The good thing is that it wasn't just his luck in the member's bill ballot; it is his luck to work with a Minister of Justice now who's prepared to work with him to make sure this law might work.And then of course there are the changes to the sale of liquor laws. Chris Bishop sits over here—it's always a telling thing when members opposite are in so much despair nothing's going right for them. So what do they revert to? Talking about selling grog more easily. It's kind of the political equivalent to self-medication—talk about the liquor laws. Chris Bishop's done that now but of course Chris Bishop has realised he's also working with a Minister of Justice who's prepared to be constructive and sensible and to help him make a difference.But all of this pales into insignificance when it comes to what the last Government did or failed to do in the criminal justice sector. The truth is that we are standing on the burning deck of the criminal justice sector right now—that is how bad things are. Members opposite were happy to pass law after law after law that extended sentences that imprisoned more people and that banged more people up. I think the stunning thing about conservative parties is just how they love this thing about locking people up and punishing them. I think it's a fetish—I think it's a fetish. There is no act of human conduct that conservative parties will not think that a good spanking will cure and so the members opposite when they are in Government they like nothing more than to punish people—lock them up—because it makes them feel good.But actually the truth is it is not a way to deal with those who carry out criminal acts and we have to do something better. The truth is our criminal justice system is verging on being broken and it is time to fix it and it will be this Government that will fix it. We have a justice system now that is less and less just doing more and more harm and more and more damage and worse is not protecting innocent members of the community. Our serious offending rate is going up. They don't seem to have noticed that—lock more people up criminalise more people but not fix the fundamental problem.So it is time to step up and fix the problem—time to step up and fix the issues that we are now facing. The priority is to keep innocent citizens safe. It is also to reduce offending. Simply leaving people for ever longer periods in prison doesn't reduce offending and doesn't create a disincentive to other offending. What we need to do is help the people who need to be changed who can be changed to be better citizens and to be more productive. In the end that's good for all of us. That's good for all New Zealand. That's what a sensible criminal justice system should do and we're determined to do it. It is time to have a Government step up and fix the mess of the last Government and it is this Government that is doing it."