Mallard Trevor: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mallard Trevor: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8151. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 The Labour Party will be supporting the Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill but will take advantage with a bit of time to point out to National that over the years it has been very very critical of this practice. In fact the member who normally sits on the bench next to the Minister of Corrections who introduced the bill— 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: You should be congratulated for finally agreeing with us. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I think it is a minor miracle and if the Leader of the House wants to keep that up we can stretch the debate. I can congratulate him until the closure if that is what he would like. 
We have a whole pile of cells around the place. They are not used anywhere near the way they need to be. They are not ideal accommodation for prisoners. They are certainly not good for keeping prisoners on a longer-term basis. But in my opinion compared with some of the cells in some of the older prisons around the country they are not the worst cells in the country. My view is that using them where necessary in emergency situations is logical and a hell of a lot better an idea than setting up a tent somewhere especially to hold remand prisoners. 
But I want to play back to National the comments of Tony Ryall. He said the use of court cells was a warning of a jail crisis. In 2005 when this measure was being introduced by Labour he said it was a system in crisis. “Police continually warn about the dangers caused by holding prisoners in court cells … Mainstream New Zealand should be worried by this escalating crisis because it means there will be more prisoner compensation claims”. 
That is what Tony Ryall said in 2005. [ 
Interruption 
] I am very reluctant to adopt his words and to agree with him so I will not. In respect of compensation it was nonsense when he said it then and it is nonsense now. But it is a sign I think it is fair to say of a very very lazy Minister of Corrections who promised a lot more than she has delivered. She promised for example that she would have crates and containers all over the place to keep prisoners in. I expected she would have a line up of those down in Wellington. I expected that she would use Wellington Prison to a much greater extent than she is. But what is she doing? She is bringing in legislation here. 
I also think it is interesting that someone on the National front bench who is much more rational and much more reasonable than Tony Ryall was also— 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: Name one. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is not hard to name people who are more rational than Tony Ryall. The particular member I was thinking of is Simon Power. On 22 November 2005 he said: “With prisoners being housed in vans”—and I gather that is the next National policy—“showered at rugby clubs and kept in police and court cells how can the Minister convince the members of the New Zealand public that they are safer since he became Minister of Corrections?”. And that is the issue here. How can Judith Collins convince people that we are safer since she became Minister of Corrections? I want to know why this legislation has taken a year. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Tent city. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Clearly the tent city has not worked. I would have thought that in any decent emergency situation getting hold of a few tents going to Stewart Island Matiu Island or somewhere like that putting up the tents and sticking the prisoners there would not be too much of a problem. That is what Judith Collins promised she would do but she is such a lazy member that she cannot even wander down to the Warehouse or Kathmandu and get a few tents to put prisoners in in the way she promised. 
All we have here is evidence of a lot of hot air from Judith Collins. You know she likes to act tough. How many cars have been crushed? Not one. How many prisoners are being held in containers? Not one. She is beginning to be known as the Minister of the eight-letter word that we are not allowed to use in this House and it has to do with bovine animals. She is the “Minister for What Comes Out of Bovine Animals”. That Minister is not delivering. She fronts up tough she puts her chin out and she lifts her chest. But does she deliver in the portfolio? No she does not at all. She is all puffery and she shows no action whatsoever. 
I want to know why if the Minister was confident about this bill she did not send it to the select committee. Why did she not have the confidence of her own intelligence to send the bill to a select committee and have it tested? 
Hon Judith Collins 
: Ha ha! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: She is laughing because she does not have the confidence of her own intelligence to defend the bill at select committee. 
The Labour Party is happy to get the Government out of the hole. We do not want prisoners running round because that Government has not acted properly. We do not want prisoners up and down the streets the way they would be if they were being held in tents as she was promising. We will support her. But if we were allowed to use the word “hypocrisy” in this House I would have.