Mark Ron: Appropriation (2003/04 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Mark Ron: Appropriation (2003/04 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:610;Page:7701] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise unfortunately to pour a little bit of cold water on top of that speech. It is wonderful I have to say to have a member who is so dedicated so loyal and so devoted to the leadership of her party that she is prepared to put on blinkers read out a speech such as that and ignore the realities. All I say to that fine member is that I know she will one day become a Cabinet Minister; she just has to keep making speeches like that. She will be rewarded for her loyalty in some way. 
The reality is that things are not going well. We could talk statistics all day we could talk numbers all day and we could have words words and more words but at the end of the day it is the reality on the street that determines whether a Government is achieving the goals it set out to achieve. 
I remind this Government of the many many things it has said in the past. It had 9 years in Opposition and had plenty of time to make it very clear to the nation what it would do. I have here a George Hawkins press release which states: “ ‘Known offenders are getting away scot-free because police neither have the time nor the resources to apprehend them’ says Labour’s police spokesman George Hawkins.” That was in 1997. We had press releases coming out from Mike Moore saying: “Of all the crazy justification for legalising decriminalising cannabis the idea this would remove a profit centre for gangs is bizarre. Why would it?”. He is going on here about gangs and what a scourge they are on society. 
Edwin Perry 
: Who said that? 
RON MARK 
: It was Mike Moore in 1997 giving us a good flavour of what this Government would deliver. “New Zealand can destroy gangs and organised crime within 5 years if we have the will.” Who said that? It was the Rt Hon Mike Moore in 1997 working hand in hand with the honourable George Hawkins on a campaign to bust gangs. Do members remember that campaign? I do; I attended the select committee hearing in Christchurch and made a submission to it. There they all were— 
Rodney Hide 
: The member was a Mike Moore supporter in that electorate. 
RON MARK 
: I was absolutely. And George Hawkins and Phil Goff who now sit here as Ministers were total supporters of those views. One could not say what those guys were not going to do to gangs. 
Rodney Hide 
: Oh you’re making it up! 
RON MARK 
: I have it here in writing. This is the party that was going to destroy gangs and organised crime within 5 years if Parliament had the will. Well I am sorry but this Government has been on those benches for about 4 ½ years—it will not be quite 6 years because it did not go the full term. According to its own press releases in 1997 we should not be dealing with the nonsense that we are seeing in Taneatua that we are hearing of in Whakatane and that we have been witnessing in Palmerston North. 
Rodney Hide 
: Who went there? 
RON MARK 
: I did not see one Labour Party member at the meeting in Taneatua. I saw three New Zealand First people but I did not see any Labour Party people. All this about statement of intent having the will and everything that is espoused by this party means nothing. Mr Hawkins and Mr Goff who espoused the view that we could see the destruction of organised crime in 5 years have been in Government for coming up to 5 years yet we are dealing with exactly the same problems they were criticising back then. 
The only thing to get rid of gangs that we have seen in the expenditure of this Government is that it has given gang members State houses. Good law-abiding Kiwis thousands of them with families—some of them as we now know living in garages—are queuing up for State houses and the Government is giving them to Mongrel Mob and Black Power members. State houses? I ask you! Where is United Future’s head? How could United Future members possibly vote for this Government to appropriate money when that is the way it is spent? I am looking forward to the election because I have no doubt that United Future has some good explanations for that. 
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and I am sorry but none of this Government’s Budget none of its past Budgets and none of its actions match up to its own words in its own piles of press releases on law and order for the 9 years those members were in Opposition. On the contrary while I was sitting up in my office listening to the radio I heard criticism about parties that do not have any alternative. Well I say to the member who made that speech and to Labour that there is a party that has alternatives and that has more I say to Mr Maharey than three issues on its plate. But they are the three big ones. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Those members over there should take their pills and calm down. I know it is hurting. They should just pinch their noses and swallow the medicine because they need to. I refer to deferred sentencing and all the money that this Government has spent on ramming through legislation about sentencing and parole. What happened here? New Zealand First raised the issue originally through the  
New Zealand Herald 
 highlighting the plight of a Christchurch couple who saw a person given 18 months’ jail out roaming free the next day. Labour denied it and then eventually Mr Goff came out and said: “New Zealand First is right. We have to amend the legislation on sentencing and parole.” So I say to Mr Maharey that there are things we do here proactively. We are fixing it from the Opposition benches. Imagine how much more effective New Zealand First could be if its members got the salaries that many of those members are getting for doing nothing.  
We exposed the fact that 470-odd people got deferred sentences but that there are hundreds of people who should not be on home detention. It is our job to expose the weaknesses in this Government’s plans and what it is doing. Home detention is proving to be a disaster.  
I refer now to Mr Paul Swain. I have to take my hat off to that Minister. He gives a nine-page speech on corrections and actually admits to some of the faults that New Zealand First has found and he admits he will have to make some corrections. But the accolades this man must get for mentioning victims in only two paragraphs out of the 120 paragraphs in his nine-page speech! He talks a lot about Maori focus groups. He talks a lot about the offenders and their repatriation. He talks a lot about horrible people who want to punish offenders. He talks a lot about the wonderful initiatives. But he mentions victims only twice in the 120 paragraphs of his nine-page speech. The joke is that he gets a headline out of it. He gets a headline in the press stating: “Victims may be consulted”.  
 Well I have news for this Government. Victims should be consulted. Victims must be consulted. In the situation we had in Auckland under this Government where a little girl of 4 years old was killed by an Asian driving a car that he should not have been driving because he did not have a licence that driver had his sentenced reduced by half through the payment of blood money without any consultation with the victim’s mother her father her grandparents or her family. That is absolutely appalling. And what does Mr Swain say? “Victims may be consulted.”! Here are 120 paragraphs and nine pages on corrections recruitment and what Mr Swain is doing in the prisons. It is a load of rubbish actually. We know the problems that exist inside the prisons because we have visited them. New Zealand First I would say is probably the only party in this House that has taken half of its caucus up to meet people in Paremoremo prison and been up to the remand prison. I have personally gone through the Christchurch Prison. I tell this Government and Mr Swain that if he thinks this rubbish in this press release is taken on board by the majority of the prison staff his feet are not on the ground—he is not in touch. The big joke is that when one talks to the offenders they know it is rubbish too. They will actually tell people to their face that they know that this is rubbish. 
This Government has a long way to go if it is to live up to the aspirations that it gave people be they Maori non-Maori victims of crime or whoever. The statistics speak for themselves. The headlines such as those appearing in the Minister’s own electorate are there to be read by everybody.