Alexander Marc: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Alexander Marc: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:608;Page:5182] 
10.  
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Can the Minister justify and support the recent statement that “the management of prisons is a core activity of the State involving the use of highly coercive powers against individuals and that it is inappropriate for private sector organisations to exercise such powers”; if so how? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Leader of the House) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Corrections 
: Yes. Imprisonment involves deprivation of a person’s liberty 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the period of his or her confinement. By its nature imprisonment is highly coercive. It involves the exercise of extensive statutory powers. This Government’s view is that there needs to be direct accountability for the exercise of such powers and that that is best achieved through a Government department which is accountable to the responsible Minister. 
Marc Alexander 
: Does the Minister not agree that seeking a Department of Corrections efficiency gain of $29000 per inmate per annum with no corresponding reduction in services or standards should also be a core State activity that must surely be in the financial interests of the taxpaying New Zealand public; if not why not? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: My understanding and the advice I have is that the ongoing cost of running the prison is likely to be marginally higher than the current price of the contract with Australasian Correctional Management largely because of differences in staff ratios. That small difference would certainly not outweigh other considerations of accountability and the exercise of coercive powers. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Is the Minister aware of allegations reported on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television and in the  
Guardian 
 newspaper of inadequate medical facilities of brutality by guards including beating prisoners and kicking them in the head and of covering up child sex abuse at detention centres run by Australasian Correctional Management in Australia; if so does that make him share Marc Alexander’s confidence in giving private companies the right to use highly coercive powers in this country? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I have heard of such accusations. I have heard similar accusations made about privately run prisons in the United States. I think they emphasise the fact that where a prison is directly managed by the State there is a much greater degree of accountability. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister aware of prison officers bashing prisoners and of prison officers having sex with prisoners in State-owned prisons in New Zealand? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Yes indeed and in those cases the department and the Minister are directly accountable. 
Marc Alexander 
: Can the Minister explain why the public should pay such a high price for imprisoning offenders with no corresponding improvement in law and order outcomes simply to pander to an ideological belief that the public neither wants nor needs? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I admit I have had many questions from the public but I have never had a single question from the public on that issue. 
Marc Alexander 
: Given that the Auckland Central Remand Prison receives a fifth of the money allocated for remand services yet accounts for more than 40 percent of remand prisoners does the Minister agree that the State providers are grossly inefficient; and what proposals will the Minister advance to make them as efficient as the private providers that the Minister is trying to get rid of? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I repeat that in terms of the ongoing cost on the expiry of the present contract it is expected to be only marginally higher than the current price of the contract. I suspect that the comparison is not being made on the basis of a full comparison of like with like including full overheads. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: I am aware that the Green Party has used its allocation of supplementary questions. I seek leave of the House to ask one more supplementary question on question No. 10. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Green Party has not fulfilled its number of supplementary questions. There is one left. The member can ask one. [ 
Interruption 
] If the member wants one he can have one because he can have it from within the party’s allocation.