Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Well here we go again. It's a Wednesday night and we're here in the dead—well not quite the dead of night but reasonably late at night and we've got another Government bill. It's a Government bill that the last Government actually did all the work on. In fact this follows on from the Crimes Amendment Bill. So we're debating a bill that the last Government basically did the bulk of the work on—the heavy lifting as they say—and it's a bill that's going to go to the Justice Committee.I've got to say I think the Standing Orders Committee made a mistake splitting off the Justice Committee from the Law and Order Committee. I thought it was a good idea at the time because I enjoyed being on the Justice Committee and I thought The workload will be good. We'll get through some chunky work." But now it turns out I think we're going to be sitting almost every Wednesday and Thursday between now and the end of the year because we've got the euthanasia bill to deal with as well. But that's OK we're a very hard-working committee well chaired by Mr Huo from Labour and we're a very bipartisan committee.So here we go again. Look this is a good bill. It does a lot of very useful things and Stuart Nash speaking on behalf of the Minister outlined a number of different things. But it is a missed opportunity I think as well. As my colleague David Bennett made reference to the National Government had some pretty ambitious plans about rehabilitation if we were re-elected which sadly we weren't—some pretty ambitious plans about rehabilitation and this bill could have been a vehicle for those plans. So we'll wait and see where the new Government is going to take rehabilitation inside the corrections system but they've got a few other tricky things to deal with in the meantime. Number one: Waikeria Prison—are they going to build it or not? We know they are desperate not to build it; meanwhile on any given night there's only 150 or 200 beds free in the system. We know that they're running around desperate not to spend the money desperate not to build a new prison but I'm going to make a prediction: I think they're going to have to. We're yet to see how they're going to deliver on this very ambitious target of a 30 percent reduction in the prison population in 15 years. Ambitious—laudable in some ways if it doesn't put public safety at risk but you're going to have to make some tough decisions around that. Are they going to reverse bail laws or the bail amendment changes? Are they going to let prisoners out sooner than they otherwise would be?And then of course you overlay that on top of it—apparently 1800 extra police coming on board.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): And if the member—[Interruption] Order! The member needs to relate his comments to the content of the bill.CHRIS BISHOP: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It's a good point. [Interruption] I've lost my train of thought but I was making a point around the 1800 extra police and the problem that the Government is going to have to deal with. We know that if you put more police on the streets you're going to end up with more prisoners. So when they get inside the corrections system the question is how do you rehabilitate—Hon David Bennett: Soft on crime that's what they are.CHRIS BISHOP: My colleague says "Soft on crime". I think you're going to hear this rejoinder and this refrain from Mr Bennett quite a lot more over the next few years—quite a lot more. I for one—I served under David Bennett on the Finance and Expenditure Committee in the last Parliament and he's a robust figure and I for one am looking forward to serving under him as his junior in the police and corrections and law and order space.Look this is a useful bill—this is a useful bill. It does a lot of things. The tattooing changes around the disciplinary process are useful. The letter-writing changes are useful. The communication around prisoner communication is useful. All of these things are kind of tidy-ups that Parliament has to go through when it comes to all elements of what Parliament administers or Governments administer. This is a tidying-up piece of legislation. Parliament has to consider this every now and then. It's a useful bill.It could be so much more and that's the thing about so much of what the Government is introducing at the moment—it could be so much more. We know that they have to get it into the House because they're desperate for legislation. They're desperate to take the time up. That's why we've got—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! I'm afraid I must interrupt the member.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 10 p.m."