Faafoi Kris: Corrections Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Corrections Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 13 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7855. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Taloha ni Mr Chair. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. The catchcry from the Government almost ad nauseam is that all that Labour does is oppose—oppose oppose oppose. Anything that the Government puts up in this House we just oppose. Well maybe it should have listened to us when we said that it was going to need some legislation to introduce a smoking ban in prisons. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Or Crown Law. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Or the Crown Law advice. On this side of the Chamber we support a ban on smoking in our prisons. For the benefit of the health of the inmates and also to give the officers in our prisons a smoke-free workplace we support the ban on smoking. But at the time that the Government introduced this measure we said that if it was going to do it—because we support it—it was going to have to bring it into law. But Judith Collins the corrections Minister at the time did not listen to us because we were just opposing. What would we know on this side of the Chamber? Our opposition at the time and the Government’s haste to try to get this through in an attempt to look tough on prisoners pre-election meant that a couple of days before Christmas one of the worst crims in this country who resides at “Pare max” I am told had an early Christmas present unfortunately for the Government by outwitting Judith Collins. I do have some sympathy for the Minister in the chair at the moment Anne Tolley because she has had to clean up the mess that Judith Collins has created. She has had to introduce this Supplementary Order Paper 171 which amends Part 1 of this bill at clause 4 so that tobacco and any equipment used for smoking tobacco or any other substance are classified as unauthorised items in the Corrections Act. 
So I would just like to maybe ask the Minister in the chair her opinion of the performance of the corrections Minister at the time when she made this change which has forced this Minister to come to this Chamber and introduce a very late Supplementary Order Paper to the Corrections Amendment Bill asking for a law to be passed to make smoking essentially illegal in our prisons—pretty much what the Labour Opposition told the Government needed to happen in order for this to happen. I will reiterate that we do support the banning of smoking in prisons. We do not think smoking is needed. By all accounts it seems to have worked and there has not been an outcry or any change in behaviour with prisoners. So we think it is a shame that by way of a very late Supplementary Order Paper the Government and unfortunately Anne Tolley has had to do this has had to introduce a Supplementary Order Paper to try to bring that change about by law. Again I will just let those people at home know that we suggested—actually strongly suggested—that the Government do that at the time. 
I did want to thank the Minister in the chair though for taking a call earlier on and answering some of the questions that were put to her earlier in the debate but there was one question that I think has not been answered—that is why the Government is continuing with the change in the strip-search regime when there was such opposition to it at the select committee consideration. I talked about opposition from the Corrections Association of New Zealand; I think it is the largest association representing our corrections officers—again people who day to day go to work on their shift and have to look after the inmates in our prisons. They said in their submission to the Law and Order Committee that they do not support the change in the strip-search regime and in fact the change they thought was going to make their job harder and would increase the number of assaults on prison officers. I do not think that should be taken very lightly and again I want to pose the question to the Minister in the chair as to why the Government is pushing on with this when our Corrections Association has said it will make corrections officers’ jobs harder and potentially increase the danger to them in their day-to-day dealings with inmates. Again the New Zealand Law Society looked for some rationale as to why the Government was changing the strip-search regime and it offered up some evidence. It said there is no evidence that the proposed changes would make any difference because there has already been an effective reduction in the use of drugs in prisons over a 15-year period. Positive drug-tests in prisons have fallen from 36 percent—