Severin ToniTONI SEVERIN (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party on this Corrections Amendment Bill. We're going to support it at the first reading because we want to hear from the submitters because we have reservations about this bill. So does National. Now the great thing about it when you read through the information is that the Government has at least had a public consultation in August and September which is a very large document which I managed to read last year and it's also had about 200 responses to the survey and 57 written submissions—also that they partnered with iwi and key stakeholders and sought feedback from prisoners with workshops with seven at the Christchurch Men's Prison and six at the Christchurch Women's Prison. I'm glad you actually consulted because this is where you learn what is needed on the ground. As Mark Mitchell said earlier he had a meeting with the Corrections Association of New Zealand (CANZ) at their AGM today and I'm very fortunate that I'll be speaking to them tomorrow. They have concerns too; they're upset that they can't help prisoners because they are short of staff and also rehabilitation programmes have been closed down that were making differences. If we can't rehabilitate them then we are going to continue the cycle of reoffending. The thing is that we're all for this—we want our prisoners to come out with skills. We are desperate—myself who suffers from dyslexia I hate to think how many are in our prisons that have dyslexia and neurodiversity. We're not even getting them tested on that and that is supposed to be part of the criteria. And it's a sad reality that that is not happening. Now we were a bit concerned around the modernising and futureproofing of the Act to clarify Corrections' powers to monitor prisoners' communication and information source for intelligence but once you get reading it you realise that yes they've done their due diligence and the Attorney-General has come back and said there is no hassles with this because we don't want any more people's rights to be infringed when already as we have said they are not seeing loved ones or families in person. Some of them haven't seen them in two years. Now also prisoners have contacted me saying Hey we want rehabilitation."—but they're not getting it. It's a sad sad reality today. But also moving forward into modern technology around video calling and internet services well why can't we also move that into some of the rehabilitation phases where there's possibilities—tablets where you don't have to have the internet but you've got programmes on it so that these ladies and gentlemen while they're in their cells have actually things to do around learning or seeing videos on things that can be downloaded. It would be much appreciated if something like that was added into this bill to move us into this modern age. But there's nothing there. Now we also have concerns around the remand prisoners being put with accused. I know it is limited but yes again there's a huge problem there within Corrections especially around staffing because to move a remand prisoner around prison they have to make sure other prisoners are locked up let alone having to have classrooms or facilities where they are. So there's going to be a huge change there that needs to be looked at. Also you hear stories of remand prisoners that have been sitting in a prison waiting for their court case and two years three years later they are released because it's time served and they have done nothing while they've been sitting there because of their remand. So we need to get our court system up and running so that these people are not sitting on remand for long periods of time and if they are let's make sure they do get those basic needs of rehabilitation given to them.Now the other thing that they have in here is around making the disciplinary process for prisoners a lot faster and better. And as I talked to CANZ actually a few weeks ago they said like anything you need what we call the carrot and the stick right? Everybody understands that if you reward somebody they will keep doing good behaviour but if they misbehave then there needs to be punishment. Now this needs to be done more of because at the moment a lot of the corrections staff are seeing prisoners not being pulled up for misbehaviour within the prison system. And that's not on because how can you keep some form of control of these prisoners if you're not pulling up bad behaviour and making it hard for our corrections staff? You know they're there they're facing it every day and you don't want them to go home to their loved ones with bruises and battered because of them being the ones that frustrations are being taken out on. We don't want to see them go to hospital because of these frustrations that our current prisoners are facing—because they're not getting rehabilitation programmes or seeing their loved ones in person because of the numbers of our corrections staff—and we're losing huge numbers of experienced ones and $4 million is only the tip of the iceberg that this Government is having to do for recruiting. It is going to end up being a hell of a lot more which is quite sad because we can't attract enough people here and we're losing really good staff to overseas because they have not been heard. Now it's not pay; it's conditions. Now the thing is if we don't make conditions good for everybody in the prison then it's just one big mess. Now also in this is around the cultural. Now we're all for that because it's all part of rehabilitation that people's cultures need to be recognised. If you read information from overseas it shows that family is a huge part of rehabilitation and we're saying it's good to see Māori Pasifika but we need to recognise other cultures when possible. We need to recognise that we are a multi-ethnic society. In the prison yes proportionately it is more dominated by Māori but we also have got to recognise those other cultures because that is part of who they are and we need to make sure they still feel that they are part of their community and that's a huge plus if we can get that running the way it says here. Shanan Halbert: So you recognise ethnicity?TONI SEVERIN: Well I said we're a multi-ethnic society so not just one or two. We are multi-ethnic.Shanan Halbert: So you're recognising ethnicity—not colour-blind on this one.TONI SEVERIN: Yes. Now the other thing is that we've always said that it should be based around that. Now the other thing is these scanners. A couple of years ago I was very fortunate I was able to go and visit Christchurch Women's Prison where they had a scanner already in place trialling it because for a lot of women it is quite embarrassing depending on their circumstances of why they are being brought into prison and if they have had abuse and many other things that have occurred for a lot of these female prisoners having a pat down pat down is not the ideal situation even if it is by a fellow female. So these scanners have come in and it's made them feel a lot more comfortable least aggravated. So I'm looking forward for them to be rolled out even faster and further. There is one thing in here that's going to be very interesting that I'm looking forward to talking to CANZ about and that is people's identity. Now I'm happy for people to identify as whoever they are. However I still have a slight problem if there is a gentleman who is identifying as a female and requests for a female officer to be able to pat them down the security around that. Because the thing is that we do know that there could be a size difference a strength difference. Now we don't want to put our corrections people in danger. So we need to make sure there is safety measures in there for those corrections staff. Quite regularly we need to make sure that all prisoners are safe as well as corrections staff. Now in general as we said we're supporting this bill at first reading because we want to hear from the important people that will help to administer many of these changes and we also look forward to many of the organisations that help with rehabilitation programmes within the prison. And we look forward to that because they're the ones with the feet on the ground as well as our corrections staff. So I'm looking forward to the unions not only the CANZ union but the New Zealand Public Service Association coming in and talking to us and giving us their opinions around how this is a good bill or how it can be improved to make everything better for our prisoners to get the best rehabilitation so that we have less offending—and also hopefully we get the rehabilitation that's in my member's bill if it is ever drawn before we finish which is: no rehabilitation no parole. But we need that rehabilitation to happen so they can get that parole.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The time has come for me to leave the chair for the dinner break. The House will resume at 7.30 pm. Sitting suspended from 6.02 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."