Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:616;Page:12377] 
9.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Corrections 
: What was the total muster of people on community work for the week ended 7 March 2004 and how many physically reported for community work during that week? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Corrections) 
: I am advised that 16954 offenders including those subject to enforcement action were serving a sentence of community work at 7 March 2004 and 5252 of those offenders reported for community work during the week ended 7 March 2004. However given that not every offender has to report every week a better indicator of reporting is the monthly figure. That shows that 9808 offenders reported in the month ended 7 March 2004. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What does it say about Labour’s new sentence of community work that his official documents show that the numbers reporting at centres around the country are dropping month by month to a situation where in March 22 percent of the people in Manurewa on community work turned up in the first week 33 percent of those in Manukau did 21 percent of those in Otara did 27 percent of those in Rotorua did and an appalling 23 percent of those in Masterton did? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Firstly although the member has information from monitoring reports he has to remember that they are not the official monitoring reports that come through to the department. Secondly the member has to recognise that the community work numbers are pretty much the same as—actually a bit better than—those for the old periodic detention sentence. The third thing the member should remember is the difference between sentences during the period being measured—the completion rate is the important one. The best analogy is that we never measure a rugby game by the half-time score—only the full-time score. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: No one is on the paddock—that is the problem. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member will not even be in Parliament in a moment. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Yes I will be. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I meant in this Chamber. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Further to the Minister’s previous answer how does community work compare with the old sentences of periodic detention and community service in terms of compliance and enforcement? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Community work is a new sentence. Early statistics show that completion rates are at least as good as those under the old sentences of periodic detention and community service. For the member’s information between 1 July and 30 December last year for example over 1 million hours of community work were completed. That means that 85 percent of sentence hours that had to be worked were worked. It is important to acknowledge however that a tough line should be taken with those offenders who blatantly disregard the sentence. I applaud those judges who are sentencing those offenders to prison. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There were too many interjections during that answer but the answer was too long. I call the Hon Paul Swain—Mr Ron Mark. 
Ron Mark 
: Thank you Mr Speaker for the compliment! I think I will be taking the Minister’s job in the very near future. Does the Minister seriously believe that it was a good idea to abolish periodic detention a sentence that had a compliance rate of 75 to 80 percent and replace it with his soft option of community work given that on 7 March of the 476 people who should have reported to the Kingsley Street Service Centre Christchurch only one in five—that is 20 percent—actually did? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: There were two things there. Firstly as the member knows it is not a requirement that everybody report every week. For example— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will hear the answer in a lot more silence than I have been hearing it. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: For example somebody who has a community work sentence and works on a fishing-boat may not be able to be there every single week so he or she comes up with an agreement to do the sentence over time. That is the first point which was the half-time/full-time analogy that I was trying to give the member before. The second point as I have said before is that the figures relating to this new sentence are as good as the figures for the old periodic detention and community service sentences of the past. 
Ron Mark 
: Rubbish. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am sorry but I am telling the member that they are. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is sufficient. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Can the Minister explain how Parliament can get honest information when for example the Masterton office is reporting a compliance rate of 73 percent for the week ended 7 December 2003 but in actual fact only 27 percent of the people who should have turned up actually did? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am trying to explain to the member the difference between the reporting sheets that are used by local people for their own information as opposed to the information that comes through centrally. I also say to the member that it is the difference between the compliance rate and the completion rate. The completion rates to date show that the figures are just as good as those under the old periodic detention system. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister aware of the widespread concern of the Department of Corrections staff who administer community work about the integrity of the reporting system that his ministry has approved; if he is what will he do about it in order to rectify a situation in which he can say there is a compliance rate of 73 percent when only 27 percent of people turned up in the week ended 7 December 2003? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am not aware of “widespread concern” as the member says. There is certainly debate within the department about the issue. What am I doing about it? I am very happy to table my media statement which indicates that I have now asked the department for better reporting on compliance completion and enforcement rates. 
Ron Mark 
: When will the Minister finally realise that much of the advice he has been given from his own department is not accurate and does not in any way reflect the views and the real on-the-job experiences of Department of Corrections staff who are responsible for administering community work and are suffering on a day-to-day basis in trying to make it work; why will he not get off his backside go and talk to some of his own staff and get the real oil on the problems with community work instead of pretending that they do not exist? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That question was far too long and there were three parts to it. The Minister can answer the first two. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: In answer to the second part I already have and in answer to the first that was the reason why I issued the media statement recently.