Clendon David: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClendon David: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11481. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID CLENDON (Green): I am pleased to take an opportunity to speak in this Appropriation (2016/17 Estimates) Bill debate. Like Mr Hipkins I found the first comments we heard from the Government this afternoon Mr Brownlee’s comments quite revealing in some ways. He spoke of the temerity of a Labour member who changed his mind as though that was a bad thing. I think it would be a very unfortunate situation if any of us as politicians or as parties were unwilling at any point to change our minds and to do so publicly. Change is often a good and positive thing. It is possible and often desirable despite this constant refrain we hear from the Government that we are somehow at the mercy of external forces and therefore are not masters of our own destiny and must simply batten down the hatches and hide. I completely reject that proposition despite it being quite fundamental and quite visible in the content of this Budget this year.The Government’s thinking seems to be limited to how little can be done—perhaps without upsetting its electorate apple cart—rather than thinking of how much can be done how much better we could do and what we might do to do better in this country. The Budget lacks any recognition of opportunity for transformation to do more or to do things differently. We need to do better we can do better and the Greens in Government will do better than this rather poor offering we were served up last week. The claim that the Greens can do better is not a particularly bold claim given the very low bar that has been set by this Government in all of its actions and particularly in terms of this Budget.I would like to speak briefly to three aspects of the Budget under the general heading of the Justice portfolio. The police first up. In about 2009-10 we started hearing about this new strategy the Prevention First strategy—the idea being that yes let us nip it in the bud reduce the number of victims and reduce offending by a proactive prevention strategy from police. The Greens applauded that approach. It was clearly in line with our own policy over many years. But we also expressed a concern that in order for Prevention First to succeed as a strategy it needed to be properly resourced and funded. Sadly 2010 the year the strategy was rolled out was a high point in terms of police funding. Ever since then the police appropriation has been dropping in real terms. The police are being asked to do more and they are being given less with which to do it and that is simply unsustainable and very unfortunate.We are pleased to see in this Budget that there is a small additional amount to enable a very modest and long-overdue pay increase for the police. That is obviously a good thing. But what we are not seeing is any evidence that this Government has a clue has a plan about how to actively implement a prevention strategy—to invest upfront and over time reduce offending reduce crime and in that way save money in the long term. Sadly the Government seems determined simply to keep making cuts and hoping the problem will go away which it patently will not.The police are stretched. It is reflected in the thinness of the police presence particularly in the regional areas in the provinces. It is reflected in evidence that morale in the police is not all that it should be. The police get very frustrated with being criticised for not achieving certain outcomes when they do not have the wherewithal to achieve those outcomes. There are indicators like the amount of leave that is building up the amount of time off in lieu that police are not taking and their reluctance even to claim back reasonable expenses. It is all evidence of a police force under pressure and that needs to be relieved very quickly or we will find ourselves in serious trouble.Similarly with legal aid—there is some apparent good news in the Budget that the Government intends to commit an additional $54.5 million to legal aid. This is a nominal increase. It is a welcome increase—albeit long overdue. It is welcome because it at least does acknowledge on the Government’s part that there is a problem—something it has been in denial about for quite a number of years. The Opposition—the Greens of course—the legal profession and some senior judiciary have all been pointing to major shortcomings in legal aid support for people to get access to the justice system. At least the Government now admits there is a problem. Unfortunately however this apparent increase still means that the legal aid funding will be about $2 million less for the estimates for next year than what was actually spent last year which was in itself completely inadequate.We desperately need to look at the income thresholds for legal aid. Currently to get civil legal aid for a single person the threshold is set slightly above $22000 which means in practical terms that a person working more than 30 hours a week at the minimum adult wage would be deemed to have too high an income to qualify for legal aid. That is a nonsense but it is a sad reflection of the lack of attention this Government has given to access to justice to ensure that people have access to our courts and are properly defended if they do find themselves in the unfortunate situation of having to defend themselves in a court.Finally I would like to speak in the time that I have of the Department of Corrections and the state of our prisons. It is not a happy situation as we know. There are some good strategies. There are some good documents. This Government has made some comments and indicated some directions that are positive and indicate potential to do better. But again and again it fails to put its money where its mouth is. It has come up with some quite good ideas and initiatives but then it underfunds them. It does not allow them to succeed and therefore we are back to—this Budget is a prime example of that. It is massively overinvesting in punitive measures in containment and there is simply not enough there for rehabilitation or reintegration which are the long-term solutions to our excessive incarceration rate in New Zealand. Our prison muster is at a historic high and it is forecast to continue to rise. We are bursting at the seams and this Government’s only real solution seems to be more double bunking and now we are hearing talk of yet another new prison. That is completely the wrong approach.Some justice reinvestment—a reallocation of the money away from steel and concrete and wire spending it on people spending it on programmes that will actually turn lives round that will change the behaviour of offenders and potential offenders—that is where we need to be spending and that is where we ought to be spending. A year or so ago of course the Government would have told us that private prisons are the solution and has that not worked out well for it! Serco of course is an ongoing boil that is yet to be lanced. We look forward with interest to the report. That is a conversation for another day but clearly the expectation the assertion that privatisation of the prison regime would somehow give a better more effective improved outcome has been seen to fail and to fail badly.One of the better ideas this Government has put in place is that every person entering into prison to serve a sentence will have a needs assessment an educational needs assessment a mental health assessment and a drug and alcohol assessment. It is an excellent idea and long overdue but to be done properly and well that needs to be resourced. We need to have very well trained experienced people doing that assessment. My information is that despite the best efforts of some very very good people in the system the level of assessment and the level of commitment to it are simply inadequate to generate the better outcomes that we might hope for. We all want inmates to leave prison better than when they went in. In order to achieve that we need to get them on to programmes and we need to get them thinking better behaving better.The big bugbear at the minute in corrections seems to be scheduling. The Department of Corrections seems to be incapable of ensuring that the appropriate programmes are available to inmates at the appropriate time in their sentence and that there is ongoing support for them on the day that they leave prison. The scheduling regime is a complete fiasco and it seems to be something that the department is incapable of resolving. There is not one single dollar that I can see anywhere in the estimates this year that will serve to ameliorate that problem in terms of investment in better information technology in terms of investment in people and in terms of investing in and changing the culture within our Department of Corrections.Corrections a matter of just a few weeks ago launched a drug and alcohol strategy and it is an excellent strategy. It is perhaps not as good as it could be but it is a damned good start to recognise that drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are major drivers of crime. It is a good strategy but no money behind it. This is a Government that is frightened of its own shadow. It is frightened to commit to change. The Greens in Government will do that. Thank you.