Power Simon: General Debate 
Power Simon: General Debate 
[Volume:635;Page:6717] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I have been waiting for months now since the start of this year for a Labour member of Parliament to take a 5-minute slot in the general debate and use that time to stand up and defend the actions of his or her colleague Taito Phillip Field. On no occasion has one member taken the opportunity to get up and back that member of Parliament. So while big issues are going on around New Zealand such as the fact that Mr Taito Phillip Field is on full pay and apparently doing very little this Government is consumed with the petty small-mindedness around a series of alleged emails that have yet to be published. 
Well is it not interesting that while the Labour Party decides it is going to deal with those sorts of issues under its watch over the last 12 months crime in this country—a serious issue—has risen by just under 7 percent? When will those members spend some time in this Chamber dealing with that issue? When will they spend some time in this Chamber dealing with the fact that under their watch violent crime has gone up in this country by 26 percent? We never hear anything from the Labour Party about that issue. 
Today we heard three snippy little speeches from Labour Party members. Where were they to rise in this House and speak when a 95-year-old woman walking to the shops to buy some milk was mugged by two youths for $2? We did not see Labour Party members on their feet then—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh Judith Tizard chips in. It is good to have the Minister back. Where has she been this week? 
In the last year police have been expected to deal with 6800 youth offenders through family group conferences. That is what they have budgeted for. Instead they dealt with 11700 youth offenders. Where were the Labour Party members who got to their feet and talked about that appalling statistic? They were nowhere to be seen—too busy chipping away at what the National Party had or had not been doing. This week Mark Burton finally got off his backside as Minister of Justice and introduced to this House a bill to try to reduce the prison population—not to address crime or the causes of crime but to try to put to bed the embarrassment that the Prime Minister feels every time she meets with one of her fellow socialist country leaders from around the world. 
Phil Goff must be spinning in his grave. He used to proudly greet the news of a rising prison population as proof that Labour’s tough on crime policies were working. Well Mark Burton has finally decided after 14 months to do something legislatively. He is the Minister whom the  
New Zealand Herald 
 gave two out of 10 for his first 6 months as Minister of Justice. As a result of his initiatives the length of sentences served by people in New Zealand will reduce by 25 percent. 
Well that is not what the public of New Zealand voted for in 1999 when 92 percent of New Zealanders said they wanted tougher and longer sentences not shorter and more community-based sentences. That Minister should stand up take a call and explain to 92 percent of New Zealanders where the mandate came from for that sort of legislative programme to be progressed. All the time the Department of Corrections lurches from crisis to crisis. The CEO of that department described it as his worst year. The Minister of Corrections disagreed saying: “I don’t think it’s been a bad year for the department.” Well he should read the newspapers and talk to Mark Burton about the fact that reducing the prison population is not the answer to reducing crime and it is not the answer to preventing a 95-year-old woman from being mugged for $2. That does not answer the problem. Those members should not come to this House and lecture this country about what National should or should not be doing. They should get off their backsides and fix the crime problem in New Zealand.