O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look to assist the last speaker Vanushi Walters the member who has taken her seat the National Party is supporting this bill but we're supporting it in the same way that we've done with a number of bills in the justice or the law and order space. It's because these are small incremental little steps forward; we don't see it as problem but we know in this space that we need to be taking great bold strong steps forward. So again we are happy to support this bill but be under no illusion the National Party does not see this as a bold strong set of steps that are particularly needed in the corrections space and I will outline why.Look this is titled the Corrections Amendment Bill. There really is only one amendment which is needed to Corrections and that's to get rid of this Minister and this Government and then we will set Corrections back on track. Fundamentally it's another area which is under enormous pressure. If like the Hon Mark Mitchell or myself and others on this side you are talking to those corrections officers you're talking to prisoners and others you'll understand that the system is under incredible pressure. Unless something has changed remarkably in the last few weeks there are very few prisoners who have received visitors this year. I just want to repeat that for those listening at home: prisoners in most prisons have received no visitors this year. That is a legal failure. I notice that the left wing have gone quiet because they're always banging on about UN rights and charters.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Oh it's OK if they do it!SIMON O'CONNOR: Exactly right. As the Hon Gerry Brownlee says it's OK if they do it. But fundamentally there are some very basic legal precepts and rules around what prisoners are entitled to. Again I think I'm correct it's something like 30 minutes a week that they're entitled to and again some prisoners have had no visitors. In some prisons the entire complex have had no visitors—that includes the likes of chaplains as well. So it's not just a legal failure; it's a moral and a social failure. You might ask Madam Speaker why I am referencing this around the Corrections Amendment Bill. It's this and it's simply this: all the pieces of paper all the words on those pages all the great intentions are going to run up against a system which cannot deliver. I want to be really really clear: that's not a reflection on our corrections officers who are doing an incredible job but they are stretched beyond capacity. The reason there are no visitors to prisoners is that there are not enough corrections staff. The reason that the likes of prison chaplains—and I used to be one—can't go in as regularly as they want to is that there are not enough corrections officers. The reason why prisoners are being locked up for hours and hours a day is that there are not enough corrections officers. One of the key reasons that a lot of rehabilitation is not occurring in the prisons already is—no surprise—there are not enough corrections officers.So again it's a positive idea that we want to put more rehabilitation into prisons. National's policy released over the weekend is much more comprehensive. But let's be clear: to do rehabilitation we need more prisoners on the ground.Sadly as the Government's attempted to correct and amend Corrections they've thrown millions and millions—I think again the last count when I used to be the shadow Minister for Corrections is something like $4 million - plus has been spent on an advertising campaign and basically very few have come forward. Really importantly for the public if the Minister and those talk about the numbers that have come forward that's only expressing their interest; those who have actually got to the front line: well worryingly few. Speaking of the front line I think we're about 400 corrections officers down and about 1800 corrections personnel short. This is a major problem—a major problem.On the positive side—on the positive side—there are some good things here. The fact that this bill will allow better intelligence gathering by Corrections is exceptionally positive. I remember when I used to go in and visit in the old Mount Eden a lot of these prisoners—I mean let's not take away from some of the terrible things they'd done—some of the skills they had when you think about the skills they had to break into your car quite swiftly and easily and rewire it and take it away kudos to them. I remember saying particularly to the young ones It's just a pity you couldn't have used those skills in a much more constructive and positive way." But we've got very smart people in prisons. Fundamentally we need to have the intelligence operations to be able to deal with that and we already know the number of contraband phones and phone parts for example which are going into prisons at the moment. Again I would argue that it's another failure on behalf of this Government that we don't have enough corrections officers to do what's necessary.Look there's going to be changes to the disciplinary processes. Again I'd like to tease this out in select committee. I think it's important that we do have discipline processes but also incentives for those who do well—and I want to acknowledge that I think that's within the bill which is a good thing. We do need to reward within the prison good behaviour but we are not to tolerate poor behaviour. Certainly the feedback from a number of corrections officers is that they do not feel the backing of their Minister or this Government and that bad behaviour is tolerated in prisons and that just a wet bus ticket if that is thrown at the prisoners. That's a concern in itself.There are some strengthening processes around the use of non-lethal weapons to be used within the prisons. I'm not going to elaborate on the various types that have been deployed or that they want to be deployed—again this is for the safety of prison officers. I suspect though this is not enough. Again talking to corrections officers they don't feel safe. There's been a much-vaunted safety policy—I'm afraid I've forgotten the exact title of it—that the Minister's been championing but it's basically stalled and there's not much confidence from the corrections staff that this is going to work. I think it's unfortunately a situation in Corrections again—and probably with this whole Labour Government; lots of great conversation and working groups and policy documents but it just doesn't make the front line. So put really simply: the corrections officers don't feel safe and that's leading unfortunately in some wings of various prisons for effectively the gangs to be in control. Again I really want to stress—I really want to stress—to those corrections officers that it's not a reflection on them. On this side of the House as best we can because we are not—well I'm not—on the front line we understand the pressures that they are under.However as I keep saying there are some good elements within here. Look they're wanting to improve rehabilitation and reintegration. A lot of it's around outcomes for Māori and Pasifika—and sadly we know that those groups are overrepresented so yes engaging there is positive. But our prisons if you will are broadly reflective of society and there are people from a whole lot of other ethnicities as well and I think elements of where we if you will culturally appropriately—I don't know why that's such an awkward sentence; I'm going to have to think about it afterwards—work with Māori and Pasifika we should be doing the same for people who are Chinese or Indian or European or otherwise. So I just want to make sure that's teased out as well.As Mark Mitchell has pointed out too this bill is actually going to allow remand prisoners to mix with sentenced prisoners. Now that doesn't make a lot of conceptual academic or practical sense to me. Why I say "conceptual" and "academic" is that remand prisoners are people who have been arrested but not yet found guilty; sentenced prisoners strangely enough have been. I don't think mixing the two together is particularly smart. Again I look back to previous work I have done where often younger prisoners were put in with older ones and all you ended up with was a young one coming out of prison a lot more smart and criminally savvy than they were. So let's not repeat that by mixing remand and convicted prisoners.I think as Mark Mitchell has pointed out focusing rehabilitation on remand prisoners is a smart thing—and again partly driven by another Government failure which is that our courts are so overburdened that people are sitting on remand not just for a long time but often for the length of their potential sentence. It's absurd. It's beyond absurd.And finally—and finally—there are a whole lot of minor but quite important changes around the use of body scanners particularly around heat signatures which are going to be deployed. I think that's a positive.I want to bookend this in the way that I started. Look we are supporting the bill. There are good aspects to this. But I'd prefer people at home not to think that this is some amazing amendment bill. It's lots of little changes—a little bit like they've done in other spaces of law and order: little changes. Yep they'll do some good but nowhere near as good as is needed. As I say fundamentally with an amendment bill like this it really should read in Part 1 that come 14 October Corrections will be amended by having the Labour Government thrown out."