Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Power Simon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:642;Page:12509] 
4.  
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: Does he have confidence in the Ministry of Justice; if so why? 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Generally yes; because they are hard-working and conscientious public servants. 
Simon Power 
: Can the Minister confirm that his ministry’s latest forecast of the prison population released in July this year projected that the number of prisoners for 2007 during the peak month of September would be 7959 yet the actual muster was 8372 at the beginning of September and that he stated on 1 October that New Zealand’s prison population is now approaching 8500? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I do not have the figures in front of me but I am sure I can rely on the member being accurate in the report he has given. 
Simon Power 
: Can the Minister confirm that the forecast of 7959 inmates takes into account his Government’s Effective Interventions initiatives to reduce the prison population; and is it any surprise that those policies have failed when one of those initiatives electronic bail was expected to be granted to “upwards of 1000 defendants per annum in order to save 120 prison beds a year” yet in its first 10 months only 56 defendants have been on electronic bail thus saving just eight prison beds? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Again I do not have the figures in front of me but I am sure the member is quoting accurately. I say to the member that if he wants to put down questions about the operation— 
Pansy Wong 
: He has. 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: For goodness’ sake the member should listen to the whole answer. If the member wants to put down questions around the operation of electronic bail that is actually a matter for the police and he should put the question to the Minister of Police. Equally the member should be aware that the Effective Interventions policy was about slowing the rate of growth in the prison population and that is something that was made very clear at the time it was announced. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Can the Minister confirm that two of the reasons that the prison population may have increased are firstly that this Government is committed to increasing the numbers of police and will have done so by more than 1000 front-line officers and secondly that this Government put into effect the tough legislation that the National Government never had the guts to do over 9 years? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Indeed I can confirm both of those things. That is a good illustration of why they are called projections. 
Simon Power 
: Can the Minister confirm that the current prison muster is close to the total capacity of the prison system of 8624 which includes beds set aside in the event of a disaster; and is the approaching crisis the reason why the Deputy Prime Minister told the House last month that Cabinet devotes “considerable attention to keeping track of what is going on within the prison system” stating: “It is one of the few areas where … every week we examine the number of people in custody”? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Again I would have thought that the member would understand by now that if he wants to put down questions about the prison muster he should do so to the Minister of Corrections—that is his portfolio responsibility. As to the other matter I think the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement illustrates why this Government takes issues around law and order and imprisonment seriously—clearly more so than the National Opposition. 
Simon Power 
: Did the Minister read a March Budget paper that states that the Effective Interventions decisions already taken have allowed Ministers to avoid decisions on 800 additional beds over the 5-year period to 2011; and given the current prison population is now at the level it was forecast to be at in 2011 does he concede that Effective Interventions seems to be failing to reduce the prison population? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Yes; and no. 
Simon Power 
: Will the Minister’s Government build another prison? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: I can only paraphrase the Deputy Prime Minister and say that we will someday yes. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: Is the Minister aware that National Party members who were supposedly wanting to get tough on crime were advising local communities on how to stop prisons being built in their local areas? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Yes indeed I am and I think it is just a further illustration of National’s—there is a word I cannot use—double standards which we see daily in this House. 
Simon Power 
: Can the Minister confirm that the last three forecasts from his ministry have consistently underestimated the prison population yet unlike the previous two the latest forecast was quietly posted on the ministry’s website without a press release from the Minister himself; and is that because he knew by the time the forecast was released that the actual numbers had already overtaken that forecast? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Yes; and no.