Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:616;Page:12043] 
3.  
RODNEY HIDE (ACT) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: Who is conducting the inquiry to produce the report he has commissioned into how the Department of Corrections spent $1.3 million on iwi consultation for the proposed Spring Hill prison and what are the inquirer’s terms of reference? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 Inquiry is not the right term and I have never used that word in this House in relation to this matter. I have asked the chief executive to report to me on among other things the consultation costs of Spring Hill Otago Northland and South Auckland women’s prison. I have also asked about proposed consultation commitments in the future. 
Rodney Hide 
: Will the Minister of Corrections ask the Auditor-General to investigate given that the lands trust chief executive officer Mr David Gray wrote to the board on 7 June 2002 stating that the only interest in the Department of Corrections contract being protected were the interests of former staff member and Department of Corrections employee Haydn Solomon and a couple of his mates; if not why not? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: No. The letter that the member refers to talks about a whole wide range of issues with that person’s employment not just about the Department of Corrections. The correct place to have this sorted out and to see whether the consultation process was fit and proper is at the Environment Court which meets in May. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. To clarify for the Minister I never mentioned anything about the letter. This is a memo that David Gray wrote on 7 June. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. The Minister certainly gave a direct answer to the member’s question. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Can the Minister spell out to this House why he believes that comprehensive community consultation is critically important in the development of any new prisons? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: For a start consultation is mandatory under the Resource Management Act. Beyond that I think it is important with a project of this size which has significant impacts on landscape water sewerage traffic and so on that the wider community—be it Maori or non-Maori—has the opportunity to have a say. The Environment Court hearing in May will be the big test of whether the consultation process has been robust. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: How does the Minister explain that Mr Haydn Solomon a former Department of Corrections staff member is also listed on the schedule of those individuals who received substantial public moneys acting as consultants on this project? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am advised that at the first part of the consultation process before any contracts had been entered into a number of people including that man were employed as Department of Corrections staff in order to get the consultation going. Once the contracts for consultation were entered into he stopped being a Department of Corrections employee and as I understood took up a position as part of the contract. 
Jim Peters 
: Why has there not been extensive inquiries made by your ministry the Department of Corrections into the extensive cost of consultation at Ngawha and particularly in regard to the fact that there was an alternative prison site available for much less at Motatau? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister can reply to everything except anything that refers to me. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: There was considerable investigation into which was the appropriate site in the north and that member could well know that. The reality is that there has been a lot of consultation going on here. I do want to say this about the involvement of Maori: Maori have been prepared as a community to work in partnership with the Department of Corrections to make sure that Maori—and Maori make up 50 percent of our prison population—are able to be reintegrated back into the community. They are showing superb leadership in this and I am hoping that other parts of the community will follow their lead. 
Ron Mark 
: If the Minister places so much importance on the consultation process with iwi why has no one to date from either the Government or the Department of Corrections consulted iwi about the ending of the private contract for the management of the Auckland Central Remand Prison or is it simply because he does not want to hear what they have to say because it is totally at odds with what he and his Government want to do? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: This question was originally about Spring Hill prison. It is quite wide but if the Minister wants to make a brief comment he can. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Because it is Labour Party policy. 
Rodney Hide 
: Does he now accept that his own department took advantage of this trust board which was in disarray to pay Haydn Solomon and a few chosen Maori to provide a report to the Department of Corrections that said on behalf of 35000 Tainui: “Sure put the prison in our backyard.”; if not why not? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: No because it is not true. The point is that at the Environment Court I understand there are only four objectives. One marae out of over 130 has put in an objection. The Environment Court is the one that should work out whether those objections in the consultation process have been correct.