McKelvie Ian: Administration of Community Sentences and Orders Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McKelvie Ian: Administration of Community Sentences and Orders Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2046. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 As usual I will not waste a lot of words on the bill but I have to comment on the fact that this is the first time in this House that the Greens have agreed with something I am going to speak on. So I am very pleased about that. There is a first time for everything I suppose.  
This bill the Administration of Community Sentences and Orders Bill removes barriers to better practice in the disciplinary area of our communities and I certainly support the bill to the next stage on the basis of that. I am also a strong believer in community-served sentences. I think that this bill will improve the processes around that and make it easier for us to implement those in the future. I think that will play a very important role in the future of our disciplinary processes in this country as we move forward. My own community of Feilding has had a significant amount of investment in this area and in the facilities to ensure the successful outcome of these types of sentences. So anything that this bill does to make that system more efficient and to allow better processes to take place around community sentencing I think is a great bonus for us. I am certainly in favour of it from that perspective.  
The bill as has been said modifies a number of Acts that are not all that old in this process but none the less some important changes to those Acts will take place. I cannot help but agree with a lot of the changes I have read about in this bill. I think it is the way forward for us in New Zealand to improve the processes we work on to improve the lot of our communities and our prisoners and people who have I guess offended in some way.  
I look forward to serving on the Law and Order Committee during the process of this bill. Certainly serving on the Law and Order Committee has given me a much greater understanding of the processes that our communities and our law and order institutions go through to get the results they get. I think that in New Zealand we should be very proud of the results we are getting now around law and order and the reintroduction into our communities of prisoners and people who have offended. I think that is an aspect that this Government has taken a strong lead on in the last 3½ years and I think this bill will progress that significantly in the future.  
I want to talk briefly about this Government’s record in the field of law and order. I think it is pretty spectacular to some extent that— 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: Did I hear you say Kris Faafoi’s got a record? 
IAN McKELVIE 
: I did not say that at all! I really was wondering though whether the coat of the member for Hutt South was made in the Hutt as usual. As I said I want to talk briefly about this Government’s record. There has been a significant reduction in crime and as a former mayor as Andrew Williams is one of the things that concerned us was when we had a reduction in crime in our area because we inevitably got a reduction in service from the police as a result. They would take police away from us and put them in some place where crime was increasing. But none the less we have reduced crime significantly in the last 3 years. We have reduced prison numbers which I think is a pretty significant factor as well and I hope that that continues although I realise as the last speaker did that we need to contain prisoners who are a danger to both themselves and society alike. We are also improving prison conditions and we are making it easier to receive discipline in your own environment and that is what this bill is all about. With those few words I have no problem commending this bill to the next process. I look forward to discussing it at the Law and Order Committee. Thank you.