Mapp Wayne: Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Mapp Wayne: Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:1010] 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 I was in the Chamber listening to the Leader of the Opposition and I have to say that I think he lives in some kind of alternative reality. He should spend his time writing a book because his speech would be the alternative reality where Labour did not actually lose the election and where all of the claims he makes about the wonders of the previous Government would be miraculously absolved by the public not voting. All they would have to do is say: “Actually Phil was right. Everything was wonderful under Labour.” 
I have to say to Mr Goff that when I was out in the community I found the public to be deeply disturbed about the previous Government’s record on crime. They wanted a fundamental change to that situation. They rejected Labour on this issue. The key reason for this was that there was a 47 percent increase in violent crime. Labour members should be ashamed of that statistic. Those members need to reflect on why violent crime increased so much in their 9 years in office. I guess they will say that it was all the fault of the previous National Government. But 9 years is too long to allow a Government to absolve itself of its responsibilities. 
I will remind Labour of another fundamental failure on its part: prison construction costs. The former Minister of Corrections Phil Goff talked about building four new prisons. What he was not going to say however was that they cost more than $1 million per cell. [ 
Interruption 
] Members opposite laugh about that. They do not care that it cost $1 million per cell; it is just a point of mirth for them. Well the public was outraged that it wasted expenditure with the so-called new contracting system and collaborative working systems as if that would be the pathway to controlling costs. In fact it proved to be the pathway to costs going completely out of control. It was yet another example I guess of the alternative reality that that party inhabits right now. Clearly we could do better than that. It is not so difficult to do better than spending $1 million on each cell. 
The Auckland Central Remand Prison is interesting. It has been hugely successfully managed privately for a number of years now. That prison was modelled on the standard US county jail. Obviously the previous Government did not seem to understand that there are cost-effective approaches to building prisons. It went for the $1 million per cell approach. That prison houses about 230 prisoners. It cost about $50 million. Members should think of the difference in cost: less than quarter of a million dollars per cell. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Hey the member’s a fool. That prison was built by the public sector. It wasn’t built by the private sector. 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Yes but it was based on a cost-effective method and it was well managed by private contractors. I would just remind members on the other side of the House that there are much better ways than those of the failed former Minister of Corrections who is temporarily inhabiting the role of Leader of the Opposition. 
I will conclude by making some remarks on the Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2). Yes there are some things that the parties in Parliament can work together on. Clearly we need to monitor prisoners’ mail and we need to deal with the issue of cellphones and so forth. Those are things that there is consensus on. Not every single thing that we deal with in Parliament divides parties. 
I would just like members on the other side to understand why they are sitting on the other side. One of the very first things we learnt in Opposition was that in order to change our situation we had to be able to understand where we had gone wrong. Labour members clearly have a huge amount of learning to do in that regard because they have spent the last 2 weeks telling us about how wonderful they had been about how they had got everything right and that nothing they had done was wrong. They simply do not understand why they are sitting where they are at the moment and I suggest they will have to do some pretty deep thinking over the next several years to understand why they are there. I would say that that is a lesson particularly for the Leader of the Opposition to learn. He of all people as a new leader needs to reflect on his failures—to reflect on why there was a 47 percent increase in violent crime and why prison spending got completely out of control. If he thought about that then we would hear a little less bluff and bluster and a little more humility from him. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.