Goff Phil: General Debates 
Goff Phil: General Debates 
[Volume:618;Page:14395] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 
: 
 I listened in amazement a few speakers back to Tony Ryall. Remember Tony Ryall? He was Minister of Justice in 1999. Remember 1999? That is when the referendum was held—a referendum on 9 years of a National Government where 92 percent of this country said: “Not enough no action a do-nothing Government!”. People threw out that Government and signalled quite clearly what they wanted from this Government and we have delivered. 
But let us remember that Tony Ryall also said something about the new legislation discounting sentences. Now Nick Smith was a member of the National Government in 1993. He remembers the amendment to the Criminal Justice Act that cut parole from 50 percent to 33 percent. In 1993 we had a National Government. What else happened in 1993? The National Government passed legislation stating that a serious violent criminal no matter what risk he constituted to the community had to be released at two-thirds of his sentence. Then National members say how terrible it is that people sentenced under their own legislation are getting out at two-thirds of their sentence when they still constitute a risk of committing further crimes. 
 Remember the National Party? Bill English was the Minister of Finance. Bill English has on the record of this Parliament an acknowledgment by him as a National Minister that he would cut police numbers and resources to pay for the failed INCIS scheme. So why would any New Zealander believe this National Party? National members are lions when in Opposition but lambs that do nothing when in Government even though they say they will crack down on crime. It has been shown time and time again that we cannot trust a National Government. Tony Ryall rails against home detention. Who introduced home detention in this country? It was Tony Ryall in 1999. It was one of the last things he did in Government. How can we trust a party in Opposition that pretends it should be the Government when it shows such duplicity time and time again? 
If we want to talk about double standards National is promising the country 10 more prisons. However I have a report from the  
Waikato Times 
 in 2001 stating that eight National MPs including Paul Hutchison Shane Ardern Richard Worth and others were out there telling the people of Waikato why they should be opposing a prison in their own area. Don Brash is now saying that National would change the Resource Management Act so that people can be told: “There is a prison coming in your street soon and you won’t have any rights to do anything about it.” Yet we had the hypocrisy of eight National members in 2001 saying to people that they should exercise rights that the National Party has now acknowledged it would take away from them. 
It is no wonder people do not have confidence in the National Opposition. One cannot trust National members. They say they want DNA testing. Where were they last year when we changed the DNA legislation to ensure that any persons committing serious crime in this country would have to have their DNA taken and where every person committed to prison in this country would have to give DNA samples? Well that was tough but not tough enough for National members who say: “We want to extend it to those engaged in unlawful assembly and who are drunk and disorderly.” At $200 a time that would clog up police resources and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. That is what they would do because they are going to be tougher than the Labour Government. Then those members say: “No parole; more prisons.” Over a decade the promises already made would cost $9 billion. 
What do we see from the United States the one country in the Western World that has a higher prison rate with 3.2 percent of the adult population in the justice system—2 million in prison and 5 million on probation? In California the home of “three strikes and you’re out” there is an 85 percent recidivism rate within 6 months of being released from prison. That is what no parole means—an 85 percent recidivism rate. Texas is now emptying out its jails. It is letting people out before they have completed their terms because the jails are overcrowded and it cannot afford them. 
The wrong people have been put in prison. This Government has unashamedly said that those people against whom the public need to be protected will be locked away and for a long time. William Bell has to serve 30 years before being eligible for parole. But we will not do the stupid things that the National Party is promising to do. They do not work and they would waste the Government’s and the people’s money.