Cosgrove Clayton: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8174. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I have a couple of questions for the Minister of Corrections Judith Collins. I think that the Minister in the chair the Associate Minister of Justice Nathan Guy will be able to answer them. The first question is with regard to the points that I made in respect of the regulatory impact statement. The Minister will know presumably even though he is a new Minister that it is normal in a Government bill to have a reasonably robust regulatory impact statement. In fact his colleague Rodney Hide who holds the portfolio as regulatory tsar pledged to the nation that he would cut through all the red tape and ensure that the bills that came into this House had been tested for their efficiency that they were needed and that the regulatory impact statements stacked up. The purpose of a regulatory impact statement is to test the strictures around bills like this. I would be grateful to know whether this bill got through Rodney Hide’s detailed gaze—whether he actually did his job and looked at it. 
The problem we have with this bill is that it may well have made history in that there is no regulatory impact statement in it. There are a couple of lines that point to a regulatory impact statement and there is the heading “Regulatory impact statement”. But until less than 24 hours ago—I know this because a copy of the bill was given to me earlier—there was not even a URL included in the bill to link it to the actual regulatory impact statement that I have in my hand and that appears on a website. I would like to know why. I am sure the Minister will give us a long dissertation in this respect because it seems to me that this proves the bill was rushed through. 
The other issues I will raise with regard to the regulatory impact statement relate to some of the points I made earlier. Cabinet has agreed on page 3 of the regulatory impact statement that the period of detention in court cells would be for 4 days or 96 hours. This legislation takes away the right of people to object to the use of court cells for the 96-hour period. It streamlines the process and we will support that for obvious reasons. But I think it is incumbent upon the Government to explain to this House and through it to the people in those communities that have courthouses that will be used—I think there are some 100-plus cells if I am correct—how the logistical arrangements will be put together. 
How will these folk be fed? Will prisoners be shipped out during the day when the court sits? How will prison officers’ logistical and security needs be dealt with? Where will the extra staff come from and who will pay for them? Where will the money come from? Who will administer to these prisoners whilst they are on additional sites in our courts? Will they be shipped out and back to prison during the day and then shipped back to the court cells in the evening? How will they be fed watered and showered? Those are basic issues. I do not think that any of our courts have those logistical provisions. Court cells have very basic sanitation but they are holding cells for people appearing before court not accommodation for an overnight stay let alone for 4 days. I would be interested to know how that will occur. 
I ask whether there will be extra security given the classification. Presumably these are low-classification inmates but I ask whether there will be extra security for the 4 days that they are housed in court cells. I think that the Minister of Corrections does not know even though this bill has been rushed through in urgency because the Minister had no foresight to forecast and to look at the forecast that she is handed every day if not every week. 
We are in the last 8 sitting days of Parliament dealing with what is a pretty simple issue but one that has risks as noted in the regulatory impact statement. Those risks are acknowledged by the Department of Corrections so I would be grateful if we could know where the extra budget allocation is coming from for staff because there will have to be one. Presumably it comes out of baseline funding so I ask what else will slip. I ask what other sorts of costs there are because there is no reference at all to costs in the regulatory impact statement. What sorts of costs will be put upon the taxpayer for the transfer of prisoners and for the other logistical arrangements that are required? The Minister should answer these fundamental questions. 
Clauses 4 and 5 are pretty self-explanatory—we know what they are about—as are clauses 1 2 and 3. But we need to know about the detail and the processes contained around this bill and the day-to-day logistics and requirements of security arrangements if this legislation is to be implemented. I am particularly concerned about the safety of prison officers. I ask how those issues will be dealt with where prison officers do not have the logistical or security support that they would have in a prison. These are not prisons these are court cells. I ask how that matter will be dealt with and what the added security for prison officers is. What arrangements will be put in place to assist the people who are at the front line? 
If the Minister of Corrections does not respond to those questions then we have to assume that the questions are unanswered that there is no planning in place that this is just part of the rushed process of this bill and that those planning arrangements will be cobbled together in the same sort of shambolic way that this legislation has been as we move through to Christmas. We know generally that the prison release policy takes place pre-Christmas and normally a little bit of space is created. The regulatory impact statement also points to this legislation being used in the early part of next year. 
I would be grateful if the Minister could give members and the communities those assurances because we know that these court cells are just basic holding cells. There are security issues for staff and basic transport and security issues for prisoners and the welfare of staff and prisoners has not been addressed. Will we ship prisoners off to the local football club to be showered? Will they be transferred back to a prison nearby during daytime hours so that the court can function and then shipped back in the evening? I ask what the cost of that will be. Where are the extra personnel who will have to do that task and where are the extra vehicles and all the other ancillary services that we will need? I would be grateful if the Minister would answer those basic questions. I am sure she has a huge knowledge of this bill and I am sure it will not be taxing given that it is only five clauses long and fits on one A3 page.