Brown Peter: Urgent Debates — Corrections Department—Reports on Graeme Burton 
Brown Peter: Urgent Debates — Corrections Department—Reports on Graeme Burton 
[Volume:637;Page:7893] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Let me say from the outset that New Zealand First regards the death of Karl Kuchenbecker as not only a tragedy but a disaster and our total sympathy is with his family and his friends. It should not have occurred. It is pleasing to hear that the Minister Dr Cullen who has just resumed his seat has said that the Government will take a fresh look at parole. New Zealand First has long been on the public record as saying that if we want to address law and order in this country there are five areas to look at. The first area is prevention the second area is apprehension the third area is punishment the fourth area is rehabilitation and the fifth area is victim support. Although we say there are five areas it does not mean that that area is the last one to be considered. 
This country needs to address the problems that are occurring through society to do with young children families and the people who go off the rails in the first instance. This country needs to address the problems that the police are facing every day. Firstly there are not enough of them and secondly their morale from time to time for reasons I will not go into hits rock-bottom. 
I find it somewhat ironic that although John Key stands up in the Chamber and offers his party as the law and order party when he was making his millions in London the National Party was solving our crime issues by advocating cardboard cut-outs and an INCIS computer. Simon Power can say “Oh so?”. I can remember it; it was an absolute disgrace and it was disgusting. At that time New Zealand First was in coalition with the National Party and we were advocating more police but National was saying it wanted fewer of them. Now we are in a confidence and supply arrangement with the Labour Government and we want a thousand more police within this 3-year term. 
Let me just reinforce the position we are in. We want police numbers on a per capita basis to be exactly the same as those in Australia. This will mean that if the country recruits a thousand police by the end of this term we will probably want the best part of another thousand in the next term. This country needs police. It needs young people to put their lives on the line in order to fight crime and criminals. On top of that this country needs—and this is a sad testimony on our society—more prisons. We need more prison officers and we need to educate them so that they know what the prisoners are in prison for—not to have the time of their lives. 
 Simon Power has frequently asked the Minister of Corrections—I have lost count of the number of times—whether he has confidence in the Department of Corrections. The answer has always been the same: “Yes but there’s always room for improvement.” Unfortunately the lack of improvement has resulted in the death of people in this country. We must take heed of what Dr Cullen said earlier. I know that New Zealand First will be pushing him and that my colleague Ron Mark—unfortunately he is not here today; he is away on personal leave—will be having urgent talks with the Ministers to ensure that the rehabilitation programme is looked at. 
New Zealand First believes that parole not only is a privilege but should be earned. It should not be automatic. These people should not serve so many years in prison then think that because they have done their time they qualify for parole; parole should be earned from day one in prison. If prisoners want their sentence shortened then the onus should be on them to earn it. 
New Zealand First accepts that things went wrong in the system in terms of Graeme Burton. We think they went dreadfully wrong. I cannot emphasise that enough. And although this sounds glib we must learn from the death of Karl Kuchenbecker. We cannot bring him back. His family would dearly love him back as I think would all New Zealanders. The only thing we can do now is to learn from the experience. We must take it very very seriously. We must address the problems with the Parole Board and the granting of parole to prisoners particularly to violent prisoners who have a track record of violence. I was appalled when Dr Cullen read out the criminal record of this guy Burton—absolutely appalled. We have to take this very very seriously. Incidents like this have occurred far too often. It is senseless and useless to go around saying that this one or that one should be made accountable. Society is accountable for these sorts of issues and the onus is on us in Parliament to address these matters positively fairly and firmly. 
Dr Cullen said the Government is prepared to look at parole and rehabilitation in its widest form. New Zealand First will strenuously support that move. We believe that parole and rehabilitation should be earned and if they are not earned then prisoners should stay where they are. We want some assurances that when these guys come out of prison they will fit into society—and we want those assurances to be as cast iron as they can possibly be. It is a sad day that we are standing up here debating this sort of issue. It is a sad day for New Zealand. It is a sad day particularly for the Kuchenbecker family. All we can do now is to ensure we do our very very best to rectify this matter and to do so with some sort of priority and urgency.