11. Question No. 11—CorrectionsJAMES MEAGER (National—Rangitata) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 11—Corrections11. JAMES MEAGER (National—Rangitata) to the Minister of Corrections: What recent announcements has he made about investment in Corrections?Hon MARK MITCHELL (Minister of Corrections): Yesterday I announced—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Just hang on—wait. Just let him at least start the answer before the barracking begins.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yesterday I announced a key part of this Government's plan to crack down on crime and restore law and order. Alongside the Prime Minister I announced $1.9 billion of investment in Corrections to meet their workforce requirements for a growing prison population as well as capital investment to build a new 810-bed facility at Waikeria Prison. The funding will meet the current shortfall left by the previous Government which has meant that Corrections is housing an additional 1100 prisoners on top of what they're budgeted for. Not only are we meeting the shortfall we are funding headroom on top of that. It means that Corrections will be staffed to house 10000 prisoners at any given time. It gives the system capacity to take violent repeat offenders off the street. The new build at Waikeria will comprise three units with an additional 810 beds. This is on top of the 500 beds opening in the middle of next year. This announcement will take Waikeria's total capacity when complete to 1865 prisoners making it New Zealand's largest prison. The previous Government had a target to empty prisons. No Government wants to see a skyrocketing prison population—Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order. Speaker's rulings are pretty clear that Ministers shouldn't really go on once they've answered the question. This was answered—the question—a long time ago. And also now we're straying into areas that you yourself have warned Ministers about that it's one thing to make factual statements it's another thing to make political statements. I asked for a point of order immediately upon that Minister making political not factual definitely debatable statements.SPEAKER: Yes that's right. You raise an interesting question actually because it is my personal view that some of these questions here today could have been answered with the word yes" and then there would be no supplementaries to follow. But I haven't ruled that way. I would say can I just ask the Minister to leave out political references that are attacks on the Opposition and speak factually about the matters that he's been asked to speak on.Hon Mark Mitchell: Point of order Mr Speaker. Can I just seek your guidance on one point. The fact is that the previous Government's only target set for public safety was a reduction of the prison muster by 30 percent. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Just a minute. We're dealing with a point of order so please stay quiet. That might be the Minister's view but it's probably not the public record. So there are other ways to make that statement and I think it would be more reasonable for the Minister to try and do that. But that answer was extremely long—informative but long. So can we have another question on that James Meager?James Meager: Has he considered the need for rehabilitation of our prisoners?Hon MARK MITCHELL: I have. As part of this announcement we've announced a total of $78 million for Corrections' rehabilitation programmes. This will deliver fulltime-equivalent resources to rehab services physical spaces for the rehab to occur and additional staffing to ensure our prisoners get the rehabilitation services they need to return to society. Since becoming Minister I've asked Corrections to refocus rehabilitation services on practical skills—helping to develop practical skills like driving and trades.Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: Mōrena. Are the additional 810 new prison beds part of this Government's approach to Māori housing?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well this Government has clearly said that we're putting public safety at the heart of what we're doing. That means that we anticipate that there probably will be an increase in numbers coming into our corrections system and that's why we made this announcement around capacity. But what we really want to see is a reduction in that prison muster as we start to get control of the crime in our country.SPEAKER: Can I just remind the House that when it comes to asking questions ironic expressions are not acceptable. I didn't pull the member up—Rawiri Waititi: Tag and release.SPEAKER: I beg your pardon?Rawiri Waititi: Tag and release.SPEAKER: Now hang on are you going to take a point of order?Rawiri Waititi: Point of order Mr Speaker. The expression was also used in this House that I believe fits in the same explanation that you've just used—the catchphrase "tag and release" and there was no—Rt Hon Winston Peters: No catch and release—catch and release listen up.Rawiri Waititi: No I'm not talking to you. Catch and release. I think that's unacceptable also but it was never pulled up.SPEAKER: Yeah partly I didn't hear it because of other noise in the House but I think—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Catch and release I said.SPEAKER: Just a minute. Rt Hon Winston Peters: It's on the Hansard they know it.SPEAKER: Yeah I'm trying to deal with this. Just everyone calm down. All I'm saying is that in general the Standing Orders are pretty clear about what can be in a question and what can't be. They are equally clear on what can be in an answer and can't be but everyone accepts that there is a degree of leniency for the sake of flow in the House. I'm just making that point today so that we don't get into that day after day after day. James Meager: Will this announcement increase the number of corrections officers across the network?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Yes it absolutely will. We're funding an additional 685 front-line jobs. This includes 470 corrections officers increasing both staff and prisoner safety. It will also meet the remuneration requirements that came out of the collective negotiations with the union at the end of last year as well as funding for future negotiations. This announcement is forward-looking future-proofing the corrections system's capacity meeting the needs of our front-line staff and making sure that they have the numbers they need to keep people safe.James Meager: How was this level of spending made possible?Hon MARK MITCHELL: That's a great question because if this was the previous Government they would have taxed or borrowed this funding—SPEAKER: No we'll stop there—we'll stop right there. Thanks very much."