Tanczos Nandor: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Tanczos Nandor: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:13005] 
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 First of all tena koe ki te rangatira kei runga ra. My acknowledgments go to Dom Karauria who is in the gallery and is the subject of much of our discussion this evening. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: A member is about to say something and I did hear that. That is right; the member cannot refer to members in the gallery. Speaker’s ruling 44/5 deals with that so the member should come to order please. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: My apologies Mr Chairperson. I did not realise that the rules of the House forbade us from showing some courtesy. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. The member has done the same thing again and he should think about it. He is supposed to be debating to you and to fellow members of Parliament and he should not involve strangers. He should not make adverse comments about your ruling. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No I am sorry but the Hon Richard Prebble is absolutely right. The member will come to the point and continue his speech. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: I think that Mr Karauria who has been the subject of much discussion this evening is an example of good leadership in prisons. Like any good leader he does not put himself forward but holds up the team that he works with. He acknowledges the role of te iwi whanui and the staff in the progress that the remand prison has made. That makes it clear to us that it is not the shareholders of the company who determine whether a prison is good; it is about the relationships that the general manager has with the community. It behoves us in this Chamber to learn from that. Rather than trying to maintain a single institution we should look at how we can reform the public service so it can work correctly. 
I would like to make the comment that Mr Ron Mark was totally off the mark when he suggested that what he thought were Green amendments were included in Supplementary Order Paper 213 in the name of the Hon Paul Swain. Members will find that the things he pointed out had nothing to do with the Greens. I am sure Mr Mark will be relieved to know that. I would like to tell members exactly what some of our amendments were. Before I do so I also point out that the Greens have never said that we represent tangata whenua. I do not believe we can do that but we do seek to uphold an honourable relationship with Maori. I think that other members of the Chamber should be thinking about that as well. 
Ron Mark 
: What’s this? 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: I do not know. If Mr Mark believes everything he reads in the papers he has a lot to learn. 
I would like to address the question of the relationship between a prison and the community. I think that relationship is crucial to whether the institution works to rehabilitate offenders. I have already mentioned the amendment to clause 6(1)(c) which deals with taking the cultural background ethnic identity and language of offenders into account not just in the individual sense of planning and management but also in developing rehabilitative programmes and other interventions. We are talking about a systematic view of those issues. But it is important that those things are backed up with some specific functions. I am very proud that the Greens have managed to negotiate some amendments in that regard. As Mr Franks pointed out the first is to add clause 8(1)(ja) which states that the chief executive has the responsibility to ensure: “… that processes are established and maintained to—(i) identify the communities significantly affected by policies and practices in the corrections system; and (ii) provide opportunities for those identified communities to give their views on those policies and practices; and (iii) ensure that those views are taken into account.” At a national level that is the role of the chief executive. That is also backed up by a specific requirement at the local level as well whereby it is also within the functions and powers of the general manager of every individual prison to establish and maintain processes to identify those communities to provide opportunities for them to give their views and to ensure that those views are taken into account. It is important that specific responsibilities are attached to those obligations. 
I mention one last thing. In order to reinforce that clause 182(1)(aa) in the Supplementary Order Paper then requires the chief executive to “include a report on the way in which the chief executive has carried out his or her functions under section 8(1)(ja) and the way in which prison managers have undertaken their functions under section 12(ca) …” and to present it to Parliament. Other matters are to be included in that report as well. We have tried to make sure that there are specific responsibilities so that rather than just provide some nice words about treaty obligations which are a good thing we actually get down to some specifics. The communities that we are talking about are not just the Maori and Pacific Island communities. Although some people would like us to believe that they are the only people in prison there are people from other communities there as well. One thing we can say for sure is that if we are to rehabilitate offenders we need to make sure that we speak to them in a way that they understand both in terms of their language and culture.