Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Volume:620;Page:15471] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 That was a rather sad speech from the almost-departed Minister of Education. Those of us who have been around Parliament any length of time know that the Labour Party announces its reshuffles through the news media. It is the way that the Labour leader softens people up for the fact that they are moving on. It was reported to the  
Dominion Post  
by usually very well-informed sources that the Minister of Education had alienated some in the sector. I have news: he has alienated everybody in the sector. 
Trevor Mallard is a sitting duck for the police portfolio. He is going into the police portfolio because the Prime Minister picked up the phone and we see on the front page of the  
Dominion  
Post that it is “Goodbye George Hawkins!”. As he was mired in the mess of the leaky homes crisis a correspondent wrote in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 that Mr Hawkins’ handling had “clearly left the whiff of incompetence wafting around his office”. Well I can report that the stench of political death is seeping from that office. As this Parliament speaks the stench of political death is oozing from the office of the Minister of Police because he is a Minister who in his long parliamentary career has delivered something memorable for the people of his own electorate. 
John Key 
: What’s that? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The worst crime rate of any part of this country. This Minister’s administration—maladministration—of the police portfolio together with the incompetent administration of the Minister for Courts and the Minister of Corrections are seeing the unbelievable situation we have today where up and down this country remand prisoners are being held in police and court cells. We heard today that at the Manukau District Court yesterday there was a near-riot by remand inmates who were jam-packed into a cell. Although that in itself might not worry people this Government’s misadministration of the corrections system should worry them. The Government has known about this situation for months. Police officers’ personal safety is at risk. In newspapers around this country senior police officers are warning that violence is a possible consequence of this Government’s handling of the overcrowding in prisons. 
This Minister of Police is on the way out and he deserves to be. It will be sad for him to have to leave what has been a passion for him but his competence is something that this Government will have difficulty in matching. The Prime Minister is trying to delay the inevitable as she seeks to find enough competent Ministers to do the hard jobs. But she still wants to keep Phil Goff in his place because she knows who will replace her when she loses the next general election. 
Police stations up and down this country are losing their frontline officers who have to guard remand inmates who are being held not only in police cells but also in court cells. The prisons are overflowing. Where will the Government put the inmates when all the police cells court cells and prisons are full? This Government is running out of space it is running out of ideas and it is running out of credibility. 
We have the pathetic sight of the soon-to-be-gone Minister of Education—there will be no more school library openings for him—saying: “Why won’t Dr Brash ask the Prime Minister a question?”. Well he asked a question yesterday and the Prime Minister could not answer it. What is more it was one of the leading news items on TV3. The whole country saw Dr Brash wipe the floor of this House with the Prime Minister. He asked her whether she would assure Mr Hawkins of his ministerial warrant as long as she was able to grant one. What did the Prime Minister say? She would not answer at all.