Tolley Anne: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tolley Anne: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5668. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 I just want to start today by talking a little bit about the fact that this is Children of Prisoners Week. PILLARS which is a charity that supports prisoners’ families has released the results of a 2-year study into children of prisoners which show that 23000 New Zealand children have a parent who is in prison—23000. They are seven times more likely those children to end up in prison. The National Government has set a target of reducing reoffending by 25 percent by 2017. That includes addressing addiction and increasing education and skills training. The most important thing for those children though is facilitating the employment of that parent back into their communities. That is what is going to make the biggest difference for those 23000 children. Work is happening around New Zealand but I want to particularly emphasise that huge work is being done around skills and employment in Christchurch so that the prisoners can help with the rebuilding of Christchurch. 
I note in a  
New Zealand Herald 
 article today that the  
New Zealand Herald  
has actually gone out and had a look at the Mt Eden Corrections Facility to look at its groundbreaking family visiting rooms with their brightly coloured play areas and kiddie packs of food that parents can buy. These new ideas are all in place in a prison that is run by private enterprise. It is run by Serco. The Opposition parties are against Serco and they are against having new and innovative ideas brought into our prison service throughout New Zealand. 
But we want to talk about jobs here today. On that same note I want to make the point that for the new prison that is to be built at Wiri the first sod was turned last week. We have got a consortium called Secure Future which is a public-private partnership. It is going to build maintain and run that prison Wiri Prison in South Auckland and save New Zealand taxpayers $170 million. That contract with Secure Future will save New Zealand taxpayers $170 million. Do you think the Opposition supports it? No. The Opposition is against it. It is quite happy for New Zealand taxpayers to pay another $170 million to build the prison because it does not support private enterprise getting involved. 
This project in Wiri will create a thousand construction jobs over— 
Dr Cam Calder 
: How many? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: —the next 2 years—a thousand construction jobs. Do you think the Opposition parties are supporting that? No of course they are not. Of course they are not. Labour is opposing it and the Greens are opposing it. In fact the Green member who just resumed his seat Kevin Hague has railed against building a prison in Wiri and having a thousand construction jobs in South Auckland. At the height of this project this company Fletcher Building will be spending $25 million a month—$25 million a month. Do you think the Opposition is supporting that? Oh of course it is not. It is against this too. When it is constructed the new Wiri Prison will have almost 300 permanent jobs. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: How many is that? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: 300 permanent jobs. Do you think the Opposition is supporting that? No of course not. Anything that this Government puts up to create jobs the Opposition is against. When I was up there last week I heard that a local contractor is providing catering on site for the thousand workers. They are talking between 30 and 50 jobs from the local community providing the on-site catering. Do you think the Opposition parties are in favour of this? 
Dr Cam Calder 
: Let’s have a guess. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Have a guess. Do you think they are in favour of this project? No they are against this project from beginning to end. 
This National Government is focused first of all on making sure the prisoners get a good education get rid of their addiction and get back into our communities and working. Secondly we are about creating a brighter future—a brighter future. Do you think the Opposition parties are supporting that? Absolutely not.