Mark Ron: Prisoners' and Victims' Claims Bill — First Reading 
Mark Ron: Prisoners' and Victims' Claims Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:622;Page:17992] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 What an extraordinary speech that was. The member said that this Government was sorting out the mess inside our prison service! We do not even have a prison service; it is a Department of Corrections. Some of us would be very appreciative if we could get back to having a prison service not a business unit. Some of us would like to see the return of a culture of service to the public not the promotion of Labour’s much-vaunted reforms from the 1980s that were parroted out of the good member’s mouth there when he referred to the prison service. I make it very clear right from the outset that New Zealand First will support the bill’s referral to a select committee but we recognise that some work has to be done on it. 
We need to peel back the pages and see what is not covered in the legislation. New Zealand First has long expressed its disgust at the fact that inmates have been paid compensation under this Government. This Government said that it would end the culture of excess that it would stop the golden handshakes and that it would stop unseemly disgusting payouts to people. We all remember the payouts to people and the campaigns that the Government ran against Christine Rankin and a number of other public servants. However what was the first thing that Margaret Wilson as Attorney-General did in respect of big payouts? She approved them. She paid out $230000 to two inmates within a year or so of having her job. 
What was another payout that this Government approved? There was the young man in the South Island who was not released after he had completed his full sentence—he was released belatedly after having qualified for parole. He was held in jail for 1 week extra. The Government allowed that little piece of scum to get $42000. And here is the real rip: that boy had been put in jail as a result of beating up a barber breaking his teeth and being told to pay $500 in reparation. Did the Government move then when he put his digit in the air and said there was no way that he would pay the reparation? Did the Government move when the barber was on television explaining how he had been viciously assaulted had had his teeth broken and had still not been paid reparation? No it sat on its chuff and did nothing. So the Government did not pay out once or twice; it paid out four times. Then we had a ruling about five inmates who had been illegally detained. Once again the lights were flashing to signal that another payout was coming but the Government did not do a thing. 
Now we are sitting here going gasp gasp horror horror because there are more inmates who are likely to get $130000. Why? It is because Labour is lazy. It is so focused on genetically re-engineering the New Zealand populace on its social law reforms and on representing the rights of inmates that it forgot all about the rights of victims. Now the Government expects the country to applaud it for championing the issue in the House today. Well this measure is too little too late. The Government has been in office far too long and New Zealand First aims to correct that at the next election. 
But the party that sits to my right is not immune from criticism either. The National Party needs to accept that it has also played a part in this situation. The legislation that has allowed those things to happen has been around for about 9 years and nothing was ever done. But more important the formation of an emergency response unit in the Christchurch prisons happened under National. That unit set about acting illegally and improperly and breaching inmates’ rights which put the country in jeopardy of such lawsuits and was anything done about that? No. Now we go flip-flop back to the Government side of the House because who is to blame for letting that debacle go on for so long? Inmates have been mistreated and abused which has raised the potential for lawsuits to be lodged. That happened as a result of a National Party initiative with regard to an emergency response unit but what did Labour do about it when it came into power and was told there was a mess down in Christchurch? 
The first Minister to say he would not do anything about that situation was Mark Gosche. He was paid over $100000 a year to do nothing. Did he redress the situation? No. Did he react to my call for an investigation? No he did nothing. I am sorry but I failed to mention that before Mark Gosche we had Mr Matt Robson the great champion of civil liberties and human rights as Minister. He is the man who is out there campaigning for Zaoui. He will do anything for some terrorist foreigner who has sucked up $2 million of taxpayers’ money but he would not do a jolly thing about his own people being abused in his own prisons. Matt Robson is the great champion of no one for nothing unless it suits him personally. He did nothing about the emergency response unit the excesses the allegations and the abuses. He did nothing about the prison officers who raised their concerns. One of them even went to the Employment Court and had everything he had said vindicated. 
Mark Gosche who did nothing came after Matt Robson and then came the matriarch herself Margaret Wilson when she became the Minister of Corrections. What did she do? Nothing! Then came Paul Swain. Hallelujah! I begged him asked him and pleaded with him to deal with the issue. The select committee discussed having a select committee inquiry into the abuses and excesses in the Christchurch prisons. It took Paul Swain years but finally he relented and right now the Ailsa Duffy inquiry is being held into the excesses and the abuse of inmates by the emergency response unit in Christchurch. We get claims and lawsuits such as those and disgusting payouts such as those only when we break our own rules. When four Ministers in this Government ignored such breaches of the law and did nothing we should not ask ourselves how those things could have happened. Rather we should ask ourselves how we can have people who are so incompetent sitting on the Government bench and drawing ministerial salaries using ministerial credit cards living the life of Riley and supposedly representing New Zealand. How can we allow that? 
The problem is that we have had a succession of absolutely incompetent Ministers of Correction. We now have the Minister of Justice coming in over the top with a bill to try to clean up the mess. There are three areas of blame. The National Party is one. The Labour Party is hugely to blame—all the more so because it said that it would fix all the problems. It had 9 years to plan for that and it has been in Government for 5 years. The warning lights were flashing and people were telling Government members that there was a mess inside the Department of Corrections but four successive Ministers chose to ignore that. Then we had an Attorney-General who handed out money like an eight-armed octopus gone mad to inmates here there and everywhere. And now we have the cleaner coming in and trying to clean the mess up. 
Well New Zealand First is here to help. We want to make this law workable. We do not like the situation whereby inmates are being paid out money. We do not like inmates getting money that Agent Orange veterans cannot get. The Government announced yesterday that it will not pay compensation to the Vietnam veterans yet it hands out money willy-nilly to inmates who get a bit of a hard time. New Zealand First is here to help to clean the whole mess up. We aim to do more than just work on this bill. Come 2005 we aim to clean up the Government benches well and truly.