Andersen GinnyVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this Corrections Amendment Bill and thank you to all those who have already provided their thoughts and wisdom in this space. While several of the amendments contained within this legislation are required because clarity is needed in the law this bill also provides for some real progressive change in an area that is long overdue.There needs to be far more careful management of prisoners at risk of self-harm and this bill provides the ability for that to happen going forth. It also provides a review of mother and baby placement decisions which is also a positive and progressive change to see. There are better detection services of contraband entering prison for prisoners for family and for corrections staff. This is an area I understand where this legislation enables a less invasive and far more comprehensive process to happen in order to detect contraband substances that may be brought into prison. In general what this bill sets out to do is to improve the ability of the Department of Corrections to safely and humanely manage prisoners and secondly to ensure that there is prisoner safety which is so important and also to ensure the fair treatment of prisoners. There are many areas where there is a level of agreement across this House where policy is good and legislation is required. Given as it's been pointed out numerous times that this is a bill that was generated by the National Party when in Government it is surprising that there is a very clear difference in opinion on this issue in particular. This gap has widened even further over the last few months given comments made on both sides of this House. It is very clear from the short and somewhat uninspiring speeches we have heard this evening that there is no real intention to address the problem of reoffending and the growing prison population within New Zealand. What we've heard so far is that this Government is in fact soft on crime—that's the repeated statement I have heard tonight. I'm not sure what that statement actually means and I'm not quite sure that the members opposite actually know what that means. I'm still looking forward to hearing how the strategy—how you are hard on crime—actually addresses the problem that is identified here in this bill. What I think actually being hard on crime means is actually scaring the general public of New Zealand because that's what's done. What is done is to inflate a problem and to scare the average person in their home which will endeavour them to vote out of fear—not for rebuilding lives not for changing the number of people who continually enter our prison system time and time again but just to engender fear in others in order to score a few quick political points. That is where this Government is so much different from the previous one because here is a requirement and a genuine desire to turn around and stop New Zealand being in the top rankings of the OECD for our prison population.So this Government is not soft on crime but I endeavour to say it's smart on crime and we believe that $100000 a year for a person to be in prison is not a smart investment. We see investment in education health jobs training and strengthening communities to be a good way of investing money and for those people that we continue to pay through taxpayers' money $100000 a year to be incarcerated that is a waste of our money.Rehabilitation—we've heard already that there's this dismay from members opposite that there's the lack of rehabilitation provisions that were previously in this bill. Well after nine years of having the ability of introducing some interesting rehabilitation initiatives I fail to see any of them. In fact I fail to see a single one and in terms of being a previous employee of New Zealand Police I saw time and time again initiatives that were designed to simply increase penalties increase prison sentences and prevent people from having the opportunities to rebuild their lives and to actually achieve rehabilitation. So I find it quite rich that there is an incensed notion from the members opposite that this bill is in fact lacking that. There has never been a plan I've seen from the members opposite to actually rebuild and prevent offending. All there's been is a desire to look tough lock them up and hope it gets a few votes.Well let's take a look at this bill and look at what is there to start out a process in which Labour has set out a very bold plan. This Government has made a commitment to reduce the prison population by 30 percent in 15 years. While this bill makes some positive changes in this space there's a whole lot more to be done yet and I look forward to seeing further bills and further policy changes to enable New Zealand to turn this ship around and make some positive change in a space that has been needing it for a very long time.In terms of what we can see of providing mental health change it's really good to see that there is an increased structure around looking at those people who are at risk of self-harm and access to good quality mental health support in our prisons is lacking at present and far more needs to be done in this space. The Act currently provides for the management of prisoners who are or may be at risk of self-harm to be further segregated and have greater monitoring. That's a real relief for not only those who are prisoners but those who are family members of those people in prison—to know that they are adequately given care and support if they are needed and are at risk of harming themselves.The second area which is also really encouraging is reviews of the mother and baby placement decisions. It's heartening to see that there will be a greater ability for women who are pregnant or have children up to 24 months old I understand—two years old—to have that time with their children. How important that is as a step to try and stop the cycle of reoffending—to have a close connection with a primary caregiver and to give those women who are in prison time to bond with their child and to understand and to have the support around them to make far more pro-social positive choices not only for their own lives but for those of their tamariki. So that's heartening to see—that this legislation enables that to happen.The third key area that I will speak on tonight is around the changes to psychoactive substances and the adverse effects that those can have. I understand that the present legislation does not make specific provision for psychoactive substances in order for those to be detected and also to make sure that they are not used within prison. It's interesting to see also that we are enabling the Department of Corrections to search prisoners staff and visitors to detect contraband and to carry out that search to ensure that there is a lesser degree of contraband substances entering our prisons. This alongside with hopefully increased access to drug treatment is also important.An area that I'd like to flag that still needs further consideration and is not covered by this bill is around access for those prisoners on remand. Some prisoners are on remand for 12 to even 18 months and are not able to access some of those services at a time when they are probably most vulnerable. This is an area where I would like to see an increased ability for mental health support and drug and alcohol treatment in the area where people are ready to change and are wanting to be accessing services more readily but sometimes are unable to access them.So without further ado I commend this bill. I'm happy to see some positive changes but I know that we're going to be doing a whole lot more in this space. Thank you. Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Justice Committee.