Wall Louisa: Corrections Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wall Louisa: Corrections Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 26 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8200. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Thank you— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Sorry I understand this is a split call so you have 5 minutes. 
LOUISA WALL 
: Thank you very much. It is my first opportunity I guess to take first drop on this Corrections Amendment Bill and to speak to this bill for the first time. In doing so I would like to acknowledge my colleague Charles Chauvel who actually opened the batting for us on a number of occasions in both the first and second readings. I guess I would like to pay tribute to him. I have had a look at what he has had to say. I am a member of the Maori Affairs Committee but one of the core issues that we have in terms of this piece of legislation is that at the end of the day yes we want people to go to prison when they have done something wrong against society and we think that they deserve to be incarcerated but with that incarceration there actually has to be an opportunity for them to change their lives around. I think that for some people who go to prison we talk about rehabilitation but the reality for some of the people in our prison system is that it is about habilitation; it is about learning the skills needed to be members—functional members—of our society. 
I have had the privilege of going to the Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility at Wiri in my electorate Manurewa and I think that a number of the initiatives that they are trying to deal with at the women’s prison really speak to some of the systemic issues that a lot of people in prison face which is actually about coming from abusive backgrounds and living abusive lives. I think that what we want more than anything is a justice system and a corrections system that are going to enable people to get the necessary skills so that they can be productive members of our society. I have worked with a number of leaders in my community one of whom the Rev. Mark Beale has spent much time in that Wiri prison working with the people who are in the prison and trying to engage with them in a very humane and respectful manner. What I do not like about some of the aspects of this bill is the fact that actually we are removing the dignity and the respect that people actually need to leave prison in a better place. A lot of people who go to prison I believe when you understand the social circumstances that have actually driven why they are there deserve opportunities to have better lives. 
It is a very important issue for my electorate. I am going to have a number of families who will move into my electorate with the building of the Wiri Prison for men. What I want to see in a corrections system in a prison system is for people to be treated with dignity and with respect. So one of the biggest issues that we do have particularly with the search and surveillance issue—in fact I would like to highlight for example a summary of the Human Rights Commission’s submission which opposed the extension of search powers and the removal of safeguards around strip-searches. Why did it do that? It did that because fundamentally if we want people to lead better lives and to yes pay whatever price the justice system has deemed of them at the end of the day we do not want people to go back into prison again. At the heart of any corrections system I believe should be the intention to help people correct their lives not to further punish them not to treat them inhumanely and not to treat them disrespectfully. And so I am pleased to have had an opportunity obviously to talk to this third reading debate. 
One of the other themes that I wanted to pick up on really was introduced by the Minister of Corrections in her first reading speech where she said that “The statutory purpose of the corrections system is to improve public safety and contribute to the maintenance of a just society.” I believe in a just society. I believe in everybody having a fair go. I think every New Zealander would. I think there are aspects of this bill that will not enable all New Zealanders to have a fair go and to actually try to transform their lives. The biggest issue that we have is recidivism. Let us get real. We have got a system where all it is doing is providing opportunities for people to go back into prison. We cannot afford to do that. We cannot afford to do that because it is a waste of human potential. So if we want to create different pathways for people then fundamentally we have got to—