Ryall Tony: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Ryall Tony: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:12999] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 This part of the Corrections Bill will make it illegal for the Government to contract prison management to private enterprise. As we know since 1999 the company Australasian Correctional Management has run New Zealand’s only privately run prison the Auckland Central Remand Prison. During that time it has been able to manage the incarceration of individuals for the cost of $43000 a year per prisoner compared with an average cost across comparative prisoners of $54000 a year and $72000 a year for high-security prisoners. That information will be disclosed even further by members on this side. 
But I want also to highlight—and this is the reason why the Opposition will be expecting a generous amount of time—that besides our opposition to the cancellation of the private prison contract there are at least four other areas that we intend to cover. First is the ridiculousness of legislating the integrated offender management programme into legislation. There are different ways of operating prisons. Penal policies do come and go and the philosophy of the prison system should reflect that of the elected representatives of the day as conveyed through the Government. It should not be enshrined in legislation. We have moved a number of amendments to remove from this part of the bill those parts that are administrative and purely the realm of those involved in management. 
Secondly we will also be opposing the new rights for prisoners that are enshrined in this legislation. These rights are now in law. The Government’s advisers were unable to tell the Law and Order Committee what new risks to Treasury these new requirements would provide. We simply believe that they are an invitation for prisoners to take the Department of Corrections to court. Under this law prisoners will be entitled to access further education. They will be entitled to have that access—not as a privilege but as a right. We think hard-working New Zealanders will be furious if criminals can get better educations than their children can courtesy of their taxes and that is possible under this bill. 
Thirdly we want to talk about the fact that this Government is passing legislation that says that the families of the offender can know when the offender is transferred from one prison to the other but not the victims or their family members. In the case of Mr Mark Lundy who was moved from Paremoremo prison to Kaitoke prison Mr Lundy’s family was informed but the family of the late Mrs Lundy was not informed. That is outrageous. We heard every excuse from the Government’s apologists as to why the law could not provide that those victims who want to know whether the offender is being moved should be informed of that. I have moved an amendment that will facilitate that. 
Fourthly we are going to talk about the role of probation officers. This part of the bill identifies that probation officers will enforce the Government’s parole orders from the Parole Board andwill enforce community sentences. What we do know is that the Government’s officials are not enforcing parole orders. The Government has agreed that a third of people on parole can actually violate their parole. The Government has agreed that that is an acceptable standard. We also know that with community work less than half the people are turning up. So we are going to talk about those issues. 
We believe that the Government is putting ideology before common sense with the abolition of the private prison contract. It makes sense financially for the Government to contract out this service because we are getting a better service at a better price. If Government members put all their ideology aside surely they will see that the responsibility of the Government to the taxpayers is such that they should be continuing with the private contract. Australasian Correctional Management has met and exceeded the contractual performance standards that it was set by the Government. In fact the Government has even congratulated Australasian Correction Management on its performance. In Parliament today we have had the ridiculous situation where the Minister of Corrections stood up and said that the Government is the only—