Jones Shane: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Jones Shane: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5619] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chair. The Minister of Corrections came into this portfolio having created gales of rhetoric before the election. She despicably attacked the neutrality of the civil service as her first act of foolishness and then had to back down when the caretakers of civil service neutrality found that she firstly was wrong; secondly did not have the necessary information; and thirdly gave the public a dangerous impression of how the hard-working industrious staff of the prison service—starting from the top—were doing their jobs. In order to distract attention she has now launched a missile saying that society will get better outcomes in particular Te Ao Maori from the privatisation of prisons. The true test of whether the privatisation strategy will win is not in whether dollars and cents will be saved but in how many young men and women will as an experience of serving time in a private prison go back better equipped and better skilled to resume a more industrious role in society. Not once have we heard anything from the Minister other than florid language loose bits of dollars and cents—well an absence of sense—as to what she is doing with prisons such as those where I come from: the hinaki the whare herehere where we come from. 
Funds are being stripped from Ngawha prison. The Minister should be securing the support of New Zealanders for the idea that this experiment will reduce the level of recidivism and cause prisoners to experience prison in such a way that they will be better equipped for society. That approach never once features in this very bleak and mean-spirited approach the current Minister has to prison management and the fortunes or otherwise of the prison population. It is an issue of particular importance to us Maori members of Parliament given the disproportionately large number of our young people who end up in jail. 
It has been a measure of considerable concern that our friends from the Maori Party are busy talking to the iwi unwisely advising them to stand at the front of the queue somehow either to build or run the prisons. I am waiting for the Minister to say publicly somewhere that the proponents of private prisons in the Maori world are basing that thesis on the perpetuation of Maori crime and that somehow by creating a private prison the Government will stop Maori offending or more important it will give them a better experience. Shame on those misguided souls following the empty rhetoric of the current Minister who believe that Maori families will get a better deal out of topping and tailing double-bunking or the privatisation of our prison system! 
It not only speaks to the barrenness of the minds that have conceived such a foolish wretched idea; it also shows that there is no money or substance to back up the Minister’s rhetoric. Somehow New Zealand will be used as a social laboratory again—that word is spelt with a “b” not a “v” although one’s emotions suggest that it is spelt with a “v”. No it will be used in a very brutal way to try out this half-baked idea that has not worked in the United States of America. Consequently Schwarzenegger was required by the courts in California to release multiple numbers of prisoners from that prison system and that is what we will see when we have not only private prisons but also topping and tailing and containers. There is no way that containers represent the best option for a key function that these prisons have to serve. These young men and women not only are incarcerated—and I say “men” with a great deal of stress—but also will come back into society. We should not for a moment think that by shoving prisoners into containers where they must top and tail cheek by jowl we will have them come back into society better prepared. That is why this Minister is unfit for this position. 
Vote agreed to.