Rurawhe Adrian; Whaitiri MekaJustice SectorCHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Members I understand that responsible Ministers are available to speak to the Vote in the justice sector. The question is that Vote Attorney-General Vote Corrections Vote Courts Vote Justice Vote Parliamentary Counsel Vote Police and Vote Serious Fraud stand part of the Schedules.Hon MEKA WHAITIRI (Chairperson of the Justice Committee): Thank you Mr Chair and happy to take a call on our Estimates debate for Corrections Justice and Police. As the chair of the Justice Committee can I acknowledge the work of the Ministers that appeared before our Justice Committee. It felt like it was almost like a game of two halves—it was pre-COVID and obviously post-COVID. So I want to acknowledge the Ministers and absolutely the officials corrections officers and police officers around the country who responded in such a timely and urgent manner not only to keep our prison population safe but to keep our community safe. I do want to acknowledge the work of the Ministers.In terms of justice I want to acknowledge the work that the Minister's doing particularly around family violence. It was reported to our Justice Committee that services—of course the pressures not just during lockdown but in general the concerns around keeping families safe and the work of the Minister in this Estimates in terms of increasing budgets for family violence services. I want to acknowledge the work that the Minister is doing in that regard and also the work that he's doing for Māori responses around family violence services.We also heard in select committee the reforms of the Family Court and the $62 million investment from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund enabling responses effectively to decrease backlog as we understand courts weren't sitting so it's important to acknowledge that. I do want to also drop in here under justice—although we understand that customs itself is a separate portfolio but their $187 million towards Customs to ensure our borders were safe. So I just want to acknowledge that in terms of the justice portfolio.In terms of police we definitely heard—and I want to commend the Minister of Police in the active work of our police officers around the country in responding to COVID. No one had a blueprint but I do know that police were very responsive to communities and I want to especially acknowledge the work of iwi through the leadership of the Minister but also officers throughout the country working actively with communities during COVID and keeping us safe. I want to also highlight the 2000 prison officers in that portfolio. It will be interesting to hear when the Minister takes the chair around the firearms buy-back that the committee heard about the plan around addressing organised crime and looking forward to hearing from the Minister around his presentation to the Justice Committee.But in the time I've got left I really want to talk about Corrections because the Minister of Corrections is in the seat and want to acknowledge the commitment to reducing prison numbers particularly in the strategy Hōkai Rangi which the Minister oversees which is an absolute commitment to reducing our prison numbers. I was fortunate enough to attend the Hawke's Bay Regional Prison with the Minister just the other day and to engage directly with inmates and to hear their own stories of Hōkai Rangi and the services that Corrections engages in with inmates and their whānau—so it's part of not only Corrections but Whānau Ora—to ensure when our inmates leave our prisons they don't return. So I'm really keen for the Minister to touch on Hōkai Rangi because it is a revolutionary strategy aimed at working with all inmates through a Māori lens. We saw that firsthand engagement directly like I said with inmates at the Hawke's Bay Regional Prison. So I want to commend the Minister for his commitment to reducing our population for hearing firsthand from inmates the short change that they're feeling since Hōkai Rangi has come into practice.So we heard that as the Justice Committee. Of course questions were asked by members but all in all the Estimates that were presented in corrections and in police and in justice did send a clear message that we were having Ministers responding to COVID in a timely way but also ensuring our communities were safe that our borders were safe and that the COVID response Budget that we are debating here is responsible for keeping our community and our country safe but also with an eye to the recovery and the rebuild. Those were some of the contributions that we heard in the Justice Committee and I'm keen to participate further in this debate. Kia ora.