Collins Judith: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2442] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Corrections) 
: 
 Mr Cosgrove asked some questions in his speech. He asked who is accountable. It is great to have an Opposition spokesperson who never reads his papers. If he had read them he would have seen that the report from the State Services Commissioner says quite clearly that “The chief executive is accountable for the performance of the Department.” If only Mr Cosgrove could read! 
He also made some other allegations; he alleged that when in Opposition I was the spokesperson on corrections along with the Hon Simon Power. Actually I was the spokesperson on welfare. I had nothing to do with the corrections area. Mr Cosgrove said that I said that heads would roll. I never made that statement and I challenge that member to table the evidence. He is very good at making allegations and at character assassination but he never ever fronts up with the facts because he unfortunately never reads his papers. Mr Cosgrove should do his homework before he comes to the Chamber. 
I think it is extremely important that we look at the fact that this financial review is a review of the 9 failed years of a failed Labour Government. That is exactly what this financial review is. How can members of a party possibly stand up and be proud that we incarcerate more people than ever before that at the moment 8500 New Zealanders are prisoners in our correctional facilities and that we have to police 40000 community-based sentences? After 9 years how can any party be proud of that? Frankly I think that is a shocking statistic. 
I also think it is shocking that the previous Labour Government never really dealt with rehabilitation. That is why it is great to be part of a Government that has promised to double the number of rehabilitation programmes available to our prisoners. If we just continuously lock up people and Maori in particular—which is what the previous Government did; no wonder its members never want to talk to iwi or to the Maori Party about prisons—we will end up with more and more people completely disconnected from society. We will end up with a more violent society and more people will feel that they are not part of society and that they do not have to care about society. That is one of the most appalling tragedies of Labour’s legacy. What Phil Goff did first in justice and then in corrections and what Annette King did in police was all about locking people up and throwing away the key. Time and time again that was all it was about. 
I am completely in favour of proper and truthful sentences that mean what they say. In 1999 Labour campaigned on tougher sentences. In Government it increased all sentences but then it brought parole eligibility down to one-third of the sentence. That shows us how truthful those members were about sentences. They told untruths about what they would do. 
Mr Cosgrove asked how the public will judge what Labour has done. I think the public has judged it—the public threw Labour out. Frankly the public would be even more likely to throw Labour out if there was another election today. The public has had enough of Labour. It has had enough of Labour’s carping and whingeing and it wants something positive. Do I ever hear anything from Mr Cosgrove about what positive steps we could take together to actually help prisoners get rehabilitated? Do I ever hear Mr Cosgrove saying that he has learnt about a great rehabilitation programme and he would like to share it with me? No; Mr Garrett does that but Mr Cosgrove does not and I think that speaks volumes. It speaks volumes because this Government is committed to rehabilitation of those prisoners who will be rehabilitated—let us not kid ourselves that everybody will be rehabilitated. 
I find working in corrections a great opportunity despite all the problems it has and the fact that it is dealing with 8500 prisoners in jail plus all the others. It has a lot of problems but we have to expect that because corrections staff deal with some of the worst people in New Zealand and sometimes things will go wrong. People who work in corrections are good-hearted people. They are really enjoying having direction and having a Minister who cares about them who turns up who goes to what they want who gives them talks about things and who listens to them which is something that never happened under the previous Labour Government. Labour members never listened to people on the shop floor because they do not respect the corrections officers. They have never respected the corrections officers; they have always talked down to them. They have never listened. 
I think one of the good things in corrections is that we have change. 
Report noted.