Ardern Shane: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8192. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 I rise in support of the Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill and I state that upfront because it would have been fairly difficult for people listening to this debate to know which bill the Opposition is debating. I will run through the list of questions that the Opposition has asked repeatedly over the last few hours: why are we doing it now where are those prisoners going to be fed how will they be showered will they be safe and is this the most suitable use of legislation to cover that issue? All of those questions have been canvassed in the last few hours. 
I say to members on the other side of the House that I have a few questions of my own. Why is this necessary now? After 9 years of the previous Labour Government and all of the forecasts it was presented with and all the warnings the Opposition gave it as early as 2005 it did not build sufficient accommodation. Those Labour members talk about how they built four prisons. We know about the cost of overruns of those four prisons. We know what a shambles that was. We have not heard why it closed prisons like Ohura Prison. The Opposition corrections spokesperson— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: We closed it down because there was sewerage going right through the town and it was going to cost $12 million to fix it! 
SHANE ARDERN 
: Well there we go. Finally someone from the Opposition knows why it closed it down. It was going to cost $12 million to fix it. How much did it cost to build the new prisons which did not meet the standards? That member should take a call. 
In his excitement to speak in Opposition for something Labour is voting for—and another question is why it is voting for the bill—Clayton Cosgrove said that he wished there was another election coming. Well so do we but I cannot understand it. There is something wrong with the psyche of someone who loves to be thrashed by the amount he would be if there was another election tomorrow. 
I say to members over there that there are a few questions they need to answer. Another question—and the Hon Trevor Mallard will no doubt have a crack at answering this—is why are we in this situation where there is a crisis in the accommodation for prisoners after 9 years of the previous Labour Government? 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: You’re in Government now. What’s your plan? 
SHANE ARDERN 
: I tell that member to go and look at what the plans are going forward. Dr Prasad made a very interesting point when he talked about the good work that he has done in terms of trying to put the ambulance at the top of the cliff of identifying problems with families and looking at doing something about that. I acknowledge him for the work he did. But Dr Prasad did not say how this Government has picked up on that work and is putting more resources into it than the party he now represents did for 9 long years. His party picked up work looked at it and said: “It is not broken. We’re not going to fix it—we’ll support it.” I say to Dr Prasad that when he stands in the House and starts accusing us of inaction he should know that when we were in Opposition and we did not support something we voted against it. 
For this whole debate we have heard that Labour is supporting the bill but its members speak against it. If that is not speaking with a split tongue then I do not know what is. I think that is probably enough from me. The points have been made. Our whip is giving me the nod so it is presumably time for me to sit down. Thank you. We support the bill.