Lees-Galloway Iain: Corrections Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Corrections Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 13 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7860. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 New Part 3 as set out on the Minister’s Supplementary Order Paper 171 makes some consequential amendments to the Smoke-free Environments Act. Specifically it removes references to “prison” in the interpretation section and amends the definition of “workplace”. It also repeals section 6A which referred to the procedures that had to be put in place in prisons in order to ensure that prisoners who were smoke-free were able to have I suppose quiet enjoyment of their prison cell and be able to be smoke-free themselves without other prisoners impinging upon that. It is because of that and also the fact that prison officers and corrections staff working in prisons are able to now safely work in their workplace whilst being smoke-free that we on this side of the Chamber do support the concept of smoke-free prisons. 
I want to make it quite clear that we have some real problems with the way this legislation is being passed—the fact is that this is a Supplementary Order Paper being introduced to tidy up a mess caused by Judith Collins a fact that has been well canvassed by many members in the Chamber this evening—but there is also the fact that this is being introduced as a Supplementary Order Paper without much warning from the Government without the opportunity for the select committee to give it the scrutiny that it really requires and without the ability for the Attorney-General to offer an opinion regarding the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. 
It is quite possible that this Supplementary Order Paper does contravene on the face of it the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and that may also open up the Government to future complaints—possibly to the Regulations Review Committee; I do not know. There seem to be a lot of holes in this Supplementary Order Paper and it has not received the scrutiny that it really ought to have. Therefore we cannot support it because we could just be leaving the New Zealand taxpayer vulnerable in the way that Judith Collins did in the first place. We may find because neither the Attorney-General nor the select committee has been able to give this Supplementary Order Paper the scrutiny necessary that this just leaves taxpayers as vulnerable as they were in the first place. 
 I just want to make one point and that is that although we are supportive of the smoking ban in prisons what this is effectively is a form of prohibition. Within a prison this is a form of prohibition and what you get when you introduce prohibition is a black market. We have known for some time—an article that I was able to reference this evening is in the  
New Zealand Herald 
; I think there were others—that the price of an illegal quantity of cigarettes or tobacco in prisons has now reached $500. That is a direct consequence of introducing prohibition. That is not money that the Government is able to collect and use to reduce the harm caused by taxpayers; that money is probably going directly to organised crime and the relatives of prisoners. That is an unintended consequence of introducing prohibition. So although we are supportive of the measure I think it is important to point that out: that when we are considering effective ways to deal with substances like tobacco prohibition is not always the best way forward. 
Although we can appreciate what the Minister of Corrections is trying to achieve with these amendments in the new Part 3 which will amend the Smoke-free Environments Act as I said we are unable to condone this legislation because all it is is a backside-covering job for the Government to try to tidy up the mess caused by Judith Collins. We do not think it is effective. We think that it has far too many opportunities for future litigation by learned prisoners such as the gentleman whose name again escapes me— 
Kris Faafoi 
: Arthur Taylor. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: —Arthur Taylor—who has been able to— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Who’s not a lawyer. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: —who is not a lawyer—