Andersen GinnyHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this bill. This is a really nice bill for ACT. I'm quite impressed. So good on you. [Interruption] Good on you. I'm being nice; this is a great bill. We like it. It's a good bill.It is good to take a look at what is happening in our prisons and to make sure that we're doing everything we can to stop people reoffending and the Labour Party fully supports that approach. As already outlined by previous members it's really important to know that we can do this. So the issue that we have is the proposed 6.5 percent cut to all Government departments which includes Corrections. That is a real concern in terms of how this bill will deliver upon what it sets out to be able to do.We're proud that when we were in Government we made mental health treatment family violence counselling services and alcohol and drug treatment all much more readily available right across prisons in New Zealand. And that's part of an approach that we're proud of having implemented over the time that we were in Government. We're really happy to have a conversation about how that can be extended in order to stop people from reoffending and to break that cycle of crime.In particular I'd be really interested when the bill comes to the Justice Committee to have a conversation about Hōkai Rangi which was the Corrections strategy specifically for working with iwi and Māori. Given the fact that Māori are disproportionately represented within our criminal justice system and in the prison population making up close to half of it in some areas we think that this bill is also an opportunity to talk about how those specific rehabilitative programmes can specifically assist te Iwi Māori to reduce the recidivism rate and to enable te Iwi Māori to receive those rehabilitation programmes that actually meet their needs under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. So I commend ACT on being so progressive in identifying some of these great opportunities to work together collectively to reduce the number of offenders and to make sure that by doing that we also reduce the number of victimisations that New Zealand sees.It's really important that we think about how we reintegrate prisoners and a big part of that is the programmes and the opportunities that are available when people are within the prison system. So this bill clearly fits within Labour's work to support people into work through gaining skills and development and to address some of those underlying drivers of crime which cause people to reoffend in our criminal justice system and big ones in that space would be alcohol drugs and family violence. To have those areas addressed alongside mental health are factors we think would contribute to stopping people reoffending.We know that a lack of work experience and education can make getting a job after prison a real struggle. In 2016 Corrections estimated that around 65 percent of the prison population had literacy levels that were below NCEA level 1. So that's an area we're happy to collaborate on to make sure we get some improvements. Corrections also found that 48 percent of Pākehā are below NCEA level 1 competency and 62 of Māori and Pasifika are below that level. So making sure that people have the skills that enable them to receive meaningful employment and to reintegrate once they leave prison is a great thing to be working on.In the briefing to the incoming Minister Corrections stated that they're facing real pressures in recruiting and retaining staff. We know that this is a big issue for Corrections so we are really keen to understand if this bill does proceed to a third and final reading how it's going to actually be implemented. And a warning—that I think has already been made—is that we would not want to see a failure of resourcing stopping someone from receiving their treatment if they accept it and we would not want anyone to be prevented from having a fair right of being reviewed by the Parole Board. So we would not want to see this being prohibitive if the resources were not in place to enable that person to receive treatment if they wanted to receive it.