Sepuloni Carmel: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sepuloni Carmel: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8179. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 I have a few issues with the Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill that are highlighted more effectively in the regulatory impact statement. I have one issue with regard to this point in the regulatory impact statement: “To ensure that all prisoners would receive their statutory minimum entitlements Cabinet has agreed that the maximum period of detention in court cells would be four days …”. My question to the Minister in the chair the Minister for Courts is what happens if there is still not a bed in a prison for them. What happens to them then? Is the period extended in which they are allowed to be housed in the court cells? Where do they go? Will they just be released? Will they be told: “Go home and we will come and get you when we have a bed.”? What will the Minister for Courts do? That is one question. 
My other question is with regards to resourcing and the ability to cater to the needs of these prisoners in the court cells. Four days is quite a long time. In my head I have this visual picture of about 20 prisoners crammed into one cell holding on to the bars like we see in American movies. I am just wondering whether that will be the case. Will all these prisoners have their own cells in the courts? Will it be one per cell or will there be double-bunking or triple-bunking in the court cells? I ask the Minister whether there will be one big cell where we put the prisoners all together for 4 days and just leave them to it. I wonder what will happen there. My colleague brought up the question of shower facilities washing facilities and food. How will we feed these prisoners? Will the courts be given a budget in order to feed these 30 prisoners that will be kept in a court cell for 4 days? What will happen and how do we go about that? Will the security guards leave their post and go out to Pak ’N Save to buy some food to feed the prisoners? I ask the Minister how this will all work. That is what I would like to know. 
One of the issues raised was that people who live in neighbouring areas will not be able to make a complaint about this legislation. They will not be able to ring up and say: “Actually I do not agree with the fact that there are prisoners held in the court cells next door to where I live.” What will happen if—or when—something goes wrong that affects the neighbouring community and the public’s safety is put at risk because of court cells being in an area where there people around. What will happen then? Will the Government respond to public safety concerns about any incidents that happen? Will it respond to those how will it react and what action will it take? I am not sure whether any of these things have been thought through given that we were presented with this bill only last night and it has not had time to go up for any public scrutiny whatsoever. I think the people who really would have liked to have made a submission on this bill are those who are situated close to a court cell. Those who are living in such an area would probably have some concerns and would have liked to express those concerns in the form of a submission to the select committee. But unfortunately the Minister and this Government has taken away the right of the public to have a say on this bill. It is not the first time this has happened; it is something we have experienced on an ongoing basis since this Government got in a year ago. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Standard practice! 
CARMEL SEPULONI 
: It is standard practice. The Government refers to the country when it was under Labour as the nanny State yet it has pushed through a number of bills that have had no public scrutiny whatsoever because it thinks it knows what is right for all New Zealanders. It thinks New Zealanders do not need to have a say on anything. That is what we call a real nanny State. 
Some of the issues that have arisen across the course of the debate have been with regards to security officer numbers and their shortage in our prisons. That has been pointed out in a number of different articles in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 and in various other sources. I ask what the Minister will do with regard to recruiting a higher level of security officers. Has she increased the budget for security officers in courts so they can cater to the needs of these prisoners; if so how much did she increase the budget to? We would like to know how much the Government is anticipating it will need.