Alexander Marc: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Alexander Marc: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:13013] 
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
: 
 I wish to discuss a number of matters and also to draw attention to two papers on corrections that have come out of Britain. Interestingly the British Labour Government’s ideology does not prevent it from displaying common sense in the management of prisons. The report  
Managing Offenders Reducing Crime: A New Approach 
 is a correctional services review by Patrick Carter dated 11 December 2003. I shall quote a couple of points: “The benefits of competition from the private and voluntary sector could be extended further across both prison and probation.” The second point is: “The introduction of competition in prisons has provided a strong incentive for improvements in public sector prisons.” 
I had the opportunity of travelling to Australia with the Law and Order Committee and having a look at some prison facilities in Western Australia. The chair of the committee and I went to a centre for youth and noted that the prison was remarkably well run very clean and had everything that is good about a prison. Interestingly it was a public service prison and we were told by the director that had it not been for the private prisons in Western Australia the prison could not have existed. That is the point. We want a counter-balance to the public sector to ensure accountability and the best possible service to the taxpayers of this country some of whom strangely enough happen to be victims. So firstly they are the victim of a crime and secondly they are called upon as taxpayers to help pay for the offender’s upkeep in prison. 
I shall quote another point from that Carter report: “The introduction of competition has provided a strong incentive for improvements in public sector prisons. The introduction of performance testing has been successful in driving down costs changing the culture and enabling flexible staffing structures to be introduced.” Why is it that the only privately managed prison in this country is the only one that has met international standards? The public sector has had over 100 years to do so yet it cannot achieve it. But now this Minister shamefully is going to extinguish the one light in our Department of Corrections and he is going to be left in the dark fossicking for a match to light. 
The idea of a review after making a decision to close the private management prison is utterly absurd and shameful. With the disgusting complicity of the Greens one cannot but feel incredible contempt for what is about to happen if this bill proceeds. 
I turn now to the second corrections report from England entitled:  
Reducing Crime Changing Lives 
 introduced by David Blunkett issued in January 2004. “The Government is not interested in using the private sector for its own sake whether in prisons or in the community. We want the most effective custodial and community sentences no matter who delivers them.” Does that not strike us as common sense? I say to our Government: “Hello! Wake up!”. This is not about driving ideology; this is about seeking the best possible outcomes for the taxpayers of this country. But the Government is going to stick to a decision it made prior to the experience of the privately managed prison in Auckland. It seems incapable of a turn-round and treating the facts on their merits. Instead it will adhere to an outdated policy and in the process turn its back on the community on Maori on common sense and on the victims of this country who will have to pay for this ideology. 
This is a shameful day for this Government. It is sad. It is pathetic. I want the Minister to get up and tell me that he believes in this ideology—but he will not. He will not because he knows it is wrong. He knows it is fallacious. He knows that it is utterly crapulent. He will not stand up hand on heart and support the intent of this bill.