Bindra MaheshMAHESH BINDRA (NZ First): It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to this appropriations debate. Corrections set itself a target of reducing reoffending by 25 percent by 2017 some years ago. We are in the middle of 2017 now but what Corrections has said was that it identified that target as unachievable so what it did was remove the target itself. There are no measurements so there are no failures. And that is the answer to the failures by this Government.Some years ago when it set up Rehabilitation and Reintegration Services—in short it is known as RRS—millions were pumped into it. There was a lot of fanfare that it started with. What it actually did was to work out earlier what the sentencing planning process was which was carried out by custodial officers sometimes in uniform who had trained to plan the sentence of a prisoner according to their rehabilitative needs. Those needs depended correspondingly on the type of offences they were involved in so that system worked. Like everything else it was not perfect but it did work and the cost to Corrections was minimal.But now what it has done is it has started this new reintegration and rehabilitation service and some of those sentence planners—those who were the ex—corrections officers and senior corrections officers who were trained to do the job—were taken in as case managers and senior case managers but those numbers were not enough because the service was bigger and it was aimed at achieving higher targets. So what Corrections did was import officers and case managers from overseas from the UK from South Africa and from other countries. Those case managers and managers had no idea about what tikanga Māori was all about they had no idea how our prisons worked and they had no idea about the culture of those prisoners. However they were brought into this flash new service and they were promoted over New Zealanders who were trained to do the job. They were promoted over those New Zealanders who had done the job in the past. Those New Zealanders knew what they were doing but these foreign imports were brought in and promoted over those hard-working New Zealanders. So what was the result? The result was that the service failed and failed miserably at that.This importation of case managers was bitterly resented by New Zealanders who were capable of doing the job. It was resented by those New Zealanders because there was evidence that ex-butchers and ex-bricklayers were appointed as managers over the top of them. So that was bound to be a failure and it was a failure indeed. And then what was the result? The result was that the target achieved was 4 percent—4 percent—as against the 25 percent advertised. So RRS again was a disaster. Millions of taxpayers' dollars were spent and wasted and then the Government had to resort to the idea of just removing the targets so that nobody knows what the measurement is nobody knows whether they are a success because there are no criteria. There are no criteria for the success of RRS and Corrections as a whole.So it is concerning that a large number of payouts were given to staff who were victims of bullying and sexual harassment. What happened was that when these foreigners were brought in as managers they had no idea about our work culture and there had been complaints of bullying and sexual harassment against those managers. But what did Corrections do? It paid out the victims and the alleged perpetrators kept their jobs. This is what has happened Minister Upston—not on your watch but on your predecessor's watch. So please check on that.Now as if that was not enough there was another disaster: Serco. The Government brought in Serco to manage the Mt Eden Corrections Facility which was being managed by the Corrections staff themselves. But no this profit-making foreign corporate was given that contract for $33 million per year approximately. And then what happened? Kelvin Davis just mentioned that jails have been a fiscal failure and a moral failure. Over there it was an operational failure also. There were escapes from that prison. There were fight clubs. There was contraband being imported into the prison. There were mobile phones in the prison. That became a massive operational failure.So what does the Government do now? After the inquiry was done the Government took back the Corrections management very reluctantly. So when it took back the Corrections management it was a slap in the face for Corrections. However officers from all over the country were brought in to help Serco run in the interim period. Millions were spent on that. Corrections was paid its fees plus on top of that there was overtime paid to the Corrections staff there were travel allowances and there were other expenses that were not necessary at all. So that became another disaster.So now coming to the Police—I would say our most overworked and understaffed and under-resourced public service is the Police. The Police admitted to closing down 30 police stations in the last 3 years throughout the country; however it informed the Law and Order Committee that 15 new police stations have opened which automatically means that New Zealanders are in deficit of 15 police stations. We asked the question as to how it has used the resources from the 15 police stations that were closed down. No answer. It said We don't measure that." How will those resources that would have otherwise been used by those 15 police stations be spread out throughout the country? No answer.Other than that there has been an increase in population at the rate of approximately 46000 people per year only in Auckland. With the population there comes crime and there comes the need for extra essential services the police being one of the most crucial of those. But what is the increase in numbers in terms of police on the streets? Just eight—an increase of eight policemen and women for an increase of 46000 per year. That clearly is not enough.So this increase in numbers and this now-promised increase in police numbers over the next 4 years is a very lethargic response to a problem that was imminent anyway. We have been raising our concerns about police numbers and rising crime for the last 3 years. However we were always told that the law and order situation is under control that we are performing better than we used to and that it is not so serious. But the Government does not bother to go and ask those dairy owners who have been robbed and who have been assaulted and who are being killed or their families.It is so serious that the shop owners particularly the liquor store owners are scared to go to work. It is a very very alarming situation and the earlier this Government gets up the earlier this Government rises to the occasion the better it will be."