Henare Peeni; Prime Willow-Jean; Goldsmith PaulHon PEENI HENARE (Labour): Thank you Mr Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to make a contribution. My colleague the Hon Ginny Andersen talked about the next layer which thankfully the Minister actually touched on which was the sorts of practicalities of it starting within two weeks—sorry making sure that the Royal assent is 14 days or two weeks after. He said for those people to get their application in in that time before that period ends. My question to the Minister with respect to that is: is there flexibility or is the Minister and the department of a mind where there are unforeseen circumstances within those two weeks or where there is a known backlog in a District Court whether or not those who are affected by that backlog have some grace here to make sure that they get their application in in respect of the time line that the Minister has just described? I think that's important. We know that in many of our courts around the country there are significant challenges there. There have been backlogs and we just want to make sure for absolute clarity from the Minister given the fact that this hasn't gone to a select committee and we need an opportunity to flesh out a number of the matters—and I pick up on the words that the Minister has just used in his contribution saying that those people can get their applications in within the two weeks and that the commencement date is 14 days after the Royal assent. Given that he said that people can get their applications in before then we're seeking clarity here—just a bit more clarity—about whether or not that impacts on those who for whatever unforeseen circumstances can't get it in in that time or through a court process it's delayed and whether or not there will be any flexibility given to the consideration of their application within what would have normally been the 14 days before the Act comes into force. Then of course without crystal-ball gazing there are challenges that happen in certain places. We've had a bad bout of weather here in Wellington yesterday which I thought was going to shut the city down. But there are these kinds of occasions and the second part to my question for the Minister is whether or not there's any flexibility here because obviously once this goes through that's that—that's 14 days. That's where I agree with my colleague the Hon Dr Duncan Webb about whether or not we can come up with an agreement to buy some time here for those who are currently in the system and—what I expect and as the Minister said—for those to put their applications through. I suspect there's going to be a flood of them. I suspect there's going to be plenty of them and will there be enough time to process them with the strict 14 days that we are debating here in this particular clause? That's my question to the Minister. Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour): Thank you Mr Chair. I want to endorse all the other contributions that members on this side of the Chamber have made in this section of the debate and I want to talk to a few new points. I see that the Minister is taking some advice there so I just do want to make sure that he picks up on the points that I want to make around the commencement date. I fully endorse the comments that have already been made about reasons and concerns and questions that they have about the commencement date. What I want to focus on in particular around the commencement date is that this legislation is being rushed through under urgency; it hasn't had the benefit of a select committee process. I know from reading numerous reports that there are many organisations who are opposed to this proposal by the Minister who have not been consulted and who have not been given an opportunity to participate in this debate on the proposals that are being put forward here. This is not good lawmaking and I would just point out that the New Zealand Law Society the Māori Law Society the Bar Association and several defence lawyers are all seriously criticising this move by the Government and the Minister. Now what I want to identify in terms of commencement is how ready the justice system is for what are going to be the perhaps unintended consequences although I think that the Minister should be aware of the potential consequences of this because I'm reading from the Newsroom article about this proposed change. Now why I'm saying that we need to consider a delay in the commencement of this legislation is because I ask: are our prisons ready for the number of people who could potentially have longer sentences with more going into prisons in the first place and for longer? Because we simply do not have the information; the departmental disclosure report and the regulatory impact statement are bereft of this information. However what I want to point to in the Newsroom report is that officials carried out data analysis in December to estimate the added costs of incarceration. I don't want to focus on costs; I want to focus on the number of beds. We know that our prison system is already stretched. It said for example: For those currently serving a sentence of over two years' imprisonment an additional 136 beds would be required. For those serving a sentence of two years' imprisonment or less an additional 120 beds would be required. And for those currently serving a sentence of home detention 124 beds would be required." My questions to the Minister are: is he confident that our prison system has the capacity and the resources to be able to deal with an increase which is the likely effect of this decision that he is making today and which this clause proposes is ready to go—up and running—in 14 days? So can the Minister please stand and explain to us that he is confident that the corrections system the prison system and the justice system are going to be able to deal with these types of projected numbers? Can he confidently say that to the committee this afternoon? I have a further contribution but it is different to this issue and I would like to have a response from the Minister on this particular issue before I move on to my next point on the commencement date and the ability of the judiciary to do their job in such a short time when he is fundamentally changing their processes. So I would like to take a call on that once I've had answers to those questions. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Justice): I'm happy to tell the member that yes I am confident that the corrections system will be able to handle this change."