Power Simon: Address in Reply 
Power Simon: Address in Reply 
[Volume:628;Page:342] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to participate in the Address in Reply debate although as the junior Government whip pointed out it feels like we have had three or four debates on different matters prior to coming to this particular debate. I also remind the junior Government whip that today is of course 42 years since the assassination of John F Kennedy and that is worth thinking about as we plunge our way into this particular debate. 
I congratulate Madam Speaker Margaret Wilson on her re-election as Speaker. In my time working with her as the senior Opposition whip I found her to have a very keen sense of humour and I warmly welcome her back to the Speaker’s Chair. I also congratulate my good friend Clem Simich on obtaining the role of Deputy Speaker. I think the way that he conducts proceedings in the House is tantamount to the theory that the market will decide. He is quite able to let things ebb and flow and to play the advantage as do you Mr Assistant Speaker with your soccer umpiring expertise. As I said when your nomination was put before the House you are well regarded by all members of the House and your knowledge of the Standing Orders is well recognised on all sides of the House. So I congratulate you on your reappointment. I also congratulate Ann Hartley on her reappointment. 
I—strangely—acknowledge the person who spoke before me Winnie Laban and also Clayton Cosgrove two of the 1999 intake of members of Parliament who have made it to Cabinet. Although I would prefer to be on that side of the House myself I sincerely congratulate them and wish them well. We will do our best to make sure their lives are as difficult as possible but before that starts I wish them well in that area. 
I am fortunate to have been given the job of Opposition spokesperson on law and order which is a job that I am thoroughly enjoying and I am finding the subject matter shall we say plentiful. In many ways I feel sorry for the new Minister of Police Annette King because she has been tasked with the job of picking up a shattered and demoralised police force. She has inherited a police force in which as surveys show the public’s confidence has slid over recent weeks and months—thanks to the fine work done in this area by my predecessor the Hon Tony Ryall. 
Annette King in her first public statement as Minister of Police said that she would restore the public’s confidence in the police. Well what have we seen in the time that Annette King has been Minister of Police? We have seen 111 response times getting worse—even worse than they were under George Hawkins during his shambolic reign as Minister of Police. I can say only that on the occasions I have watched Mr Hawkins sit in his back-bench seat I noticed that he looked relieved. He looks as though he has been put out of his misery and can just sit quietly and enjoy himself. Annette King has a tough job and she has failed on the first count because the 111 system and the response times under the 111 system have actually become worse. 
We see in the media today that multiple numbers of police are being offered one job all at the same time and we see an extraordinary situation where the remedies available to those police officers who were offered that job will no doubt now be exercised in full which will cause further concern for the Commissioner of Police and no doubt his replacement. 
We also see by way of written questions in recent weeks that 30 percent of police high-speed pursuits of offenders are abandoned. So 30 percent of those offenders who are literally running—or driving—from the police are getting away. If those car chases are being abandoned for safety reasons that is fair enough but I have asked Annette King to assure Parliament and the public of New Zealand that those people are apprehended at a later date and that they are not just getting away from those high-speed pursuits and any other offences or convictions that may be brought against them. 
The other area in this job that I am fortunate to have an interest in is that of corrections. I have to say that Damien O’Connor has his work cut out for him. This is a shambles of a department. In recent weeks we have heard a number of stories of prisoners sleeping in and moving around in vans between court cells and prison and heading off to rugby clubrooms to shower and exercise. We are seeing an environment where the department is throwing up its hands in the briefing to incoming Ministers and saying: “It’s all too hard for us.” I say to the Minister that our strategic options are completely limited because of the number of prisoners who are coming through the system. It is easy to talk tough about tightening the Sentencing Act the Parole Act and the Corrections Act but at the other end of the scale that is simply going to mean there will be more prisoners in custody. 
The Government has to do better than to say that it has planned until 2008 and that there will be enough beds until then. The big problem is not what happens between now and 2008 it is the post-2008 period that is the real problem—although if one believes some of the Ministry of Justice projections about prisoner numbers there is a short-term problem particularly when prisoners are held in vans and showering in rugby clubrooms. 
Rodney Hide 
: What’s the plan then? 
SIMON POWER 
: Mr Hide rightly asks the question that we tried to put to Mr O’Connor today in question time—what happens then? 
Rodney Hide 
: What’s the plan? 
SIMON POWER 
: It is funny that Mr Hide should ask that because Mr O’Connor issued a statement today saying that perhaps home detention could mop up some of that. That will not work when the Government and Ministers from the Government talk tough about crime and penalties put people in prison and then say: “Oh perhaps home detention could mop up some of that problem.” 
It could be worse. Prisoners could be sent to Ngawha prison where in the middle of the night they could just leave their cells help themselves to tea and coffee in the guards’ staffroom and wander in and out of the control room of the prison. They would obviously want to avoid the red button that opens the gates because why would they want to leave if they could get up in the middle of the night and wander around and have tea and coffee in the staffroom? Why would they want to press the red button and head back to a life where maybe they would have to pay for tea and coffee? In Ngawha prison prisoners can just get up in the middle of the night and wander around to their heart’s content. What did Damien O’Connor do when this scandal was revealed? He moved quickly and ordered a report into it which said that the locks on the window and the way they operated were a minor technical hitch. Mr Cosgrove shakes his head and he would be right to do that because a minor technical hitch does not involve a new prison where prisoners can get up in the middle of the night climb out of their windows pop off for cups of tea and coffee in the guards’ staffroom wander in and out of the control room and could press the red button to make themselves free. But then they would think: “Why would I go? This is too good. I’ll stay here. This is the way forward.” I worry about that and I say to Mr O’Connor that we will watch those reports to see where we go. 
I congratulate the new National MPs who have come to the House after this election. They are a fantastic group of people who make the Labour back bench look tired and old. At the risk of offending any of the new MPs I want to congratulate just two new members of Parliament in particular Chester Borrows and Nathan Guy who are my neighbours in the lower North Island. Until only a very short time ago our area was a complete sea of red. I was completely surrounded by red. We are lucky to have people in the Wellington area of the calibre of Chris Finlayson who will make a fantastic contribution to this House. I have no doubt about that at all. But I particularly want to congratulate Nathan Guy and Chester Borrows and I am sure they will make an excellent contribution. I also want to congratulate Don Brash on the fantastic job he did during the campaign in lifting National’s party vote from 21 percent to 39 percent. That was an extraordinary feat for a man who has been in politics for less than 3 years and he deserves to be congratulated on it. Lastly I want to thank the people of Rangitikei for the faith that they have shown in me by electing me for a third term to be their member of Parliament. Electorate needs should always come first for members of Parliament and everyone would do well to remember that. 
We are going to be taking the fight to the Clark-Peters Government over the course of the next short while—and it will be a short while. I look forward to taking the debate to the responsible Ministers in the areas of law and order police corrections and courts and also to participating in a caucus that is strongly led by Don Brash and Gerry Brownlee in what will prove to be a very short time in Government for this tired old Labour Party.