Collins Judith: Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:652;Page:1367] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 I thank the member who has just resumed his seat the Hon Simon Power for that very helpful contribution to Part 2. He is quite right: there is very very involved technology in terms of this area. The reason for that is the topography of the area and what else is involved around Mount Eden Prison. It is in an extremely built-up area; the motorway is right beside the prison. There are all sorts of issues but I can tell the Minister that the Department of Corrections has made very good progress in that regard and we are getting far better cooperation from the other agencies that need to be involved in this issue than we had before the election. Certainly since the election the department seems to have realised that this is an extraordinarily important issue. 
As that member has referred to this issue is very important going forward. I have certainly been appalled by the knowledge that in the Operation Web case there was so much use of cellphones in and from Paremoremo maximum security prison including all sorts of guises used in order to access it. Then we found out that it was our own department under a Labour Government that not only allowed this to happen but also entered into signed contracts between the Department of Corrections Vodafone and Telecom to have cellphone towers placed inside Paremoremo maximum security prison. That was one of the stunning results of my asking questions about what was really holding up this issue. 
Of course the department is taking this extremely seriously now. Its staff are working very well with Telecom and Vodafone to address it. As the member quite rightly said it is very difficult to address the issue of cellphones cited inside the prison because blocking mechanisms have to be used to stop cellphone access from within the prison. At the same time cellphone access needs to be allowed for the legitimate users around the area of Paremoremo. From what the Department of Corrections has said in its reports to me it looks like that is now progressing. 
We had some issues with some of the providers and one in particular that needed to have some discussions about just how serious this issue is. We cannot have our prisons particularly our maximum security prisons being used as a base for major drug-dealing as they were under the previous Government. It is extremely important that we give the Department of Corrections the power and ability to deal with this. 
I heard all sorts of excuses about the fact that cellphones did not used to be as small as that back then so nobody thought about the possibility. Frankly that is just rubbish. Many of us had very small cellphones in the late 1990s in 2000 and in 2004. SIM cards have been around for a very long time too—particularly for those who use the Vodafone network. We understand that. There have been all sorts of excuses handed up and none of them have been acceptable. At the end of the day we did not see the previous Minister getting excited about this and we did not see ministerial involvement until the change of Government. That is one of the jobs that Ministers have to do: they have to provide leadership they have to say that standards are going to be expected and they have to be held to account. 
Certainly it is incredibly important that this legislation goes through and that is why we are very supportive of it. I am sorry to hear that the Greens are not supporting it. I do not know why they would not want to have this provision dealt with. I am pleased that Labour finally brought this legislation to Parliament before it was thrown out of Government and we are very happy to help get it through the House.