Ardern Shane: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8169. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 Following on from the comments made by my ACT colleague John Boscawen I am reminded very much of how awful it is in Opposition when one is voting for something but one is required to give a 10-minute speech putting forward the reasons why it is not a good idea. That is the reason we fight so hard to get into Government; it is so much better to be on this side of the House. 
I say to my colleagues on the other side of the House who have debated the Corrections (Use of Court Cells) Amendment Bill so far—the Hon Trevor Mallard and the Hon Clayton Cosgrove who have come up with all the reasons why this bill is not a good idea but who are supporting it—that they have missed one point. This Government has now been in power for 1 year. They were in power for 9 years. They talked of the prisons that they opened during the 9 years they were in power but they forgot to mention that they also closed some prisons. 
The question that has not been raised so far given the importance of this bill because of the overflow from our prisons and the crisis that has been created as a result is why they closed Ohura Prison in the King Country during their time in Government. When we drill into the reasons they gave for doing that we find that they argued that they could not get prison officers to live out there. Well in the end that was true but why was that? It was because a decision was made 12 to 18 months prior to the closure of that prison to sell off the prison houses. Of course when prison officers apply for a job they look at the whole package. They have to consider where they would live how they would get there and what the salary was. They found they would have to go out to Ohura and try to find suitable accommodation for their wives and families and of course it was not available. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy! The selling of prison houses making them unavailable was a nationwide decision and in Ohura the one-size-fits-all approach did not work. 
And it was a tragedy. When I look back at it I realise that the kind of people who generally make themselves available as medium-security or low-security prison officers are the kind of people who like a recreational sort of life. They might be hunters fishers foresters or have other similar hobbies that they do outside of their hours of work and Ohura was perfectly located for that type of person and that type of lifestyle. However the decision was made the prison was closed and now we are here debating a bill under urgency to allow court cells and other temporary facilities to be used to accommodate the overflow of prisoners. 
I would be interested in comments from the Hon Clayton Cosgrove or from anybody else who wishes to take a call to explain the merits of that decision. When Tony Ryall was the Opposition police spokesperson he identified a looming problem in terms of the growing prison numbers and a lack of construction of new prison facilities. So after 9 years of Labour we are now debating under urgency the need to allow the temporary accommodation of prisoners in facilities that could arguably be described as unsuitable for long-term corrections activity. The Government is aware of that and it is moving to look at all options as quickly as possible. I am sure that the National Government will find a solution to it.