Davis Kelvin: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 16 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8981. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau) to the Minister of Corrections: Why was the Law and Order Committee not told at the Corrections Estimates hearing last year about either the 2009 or 2014 investigations into organised prison violence at Mt Eden Corrections Facility?Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Corrections): Putting aside the mistake in the member’s question—the Mt Eden Corrections Facility did not open until 2011—I can inform the member that the 2009 investigation at the old Mt Eden Prison found no evidence of organised violence so was not escalated by officials to a ministerial level and that the 2014 investigation was brought to the then Minister’s attention following the publication of video footage that occurred after the estimates hearing on 24 June 2015.Kelvin Davis: Given her failure to disclose the 2009 investigation into organised violence at Mt Eden Prison is this the only time she has misled the public about prison management on her watch?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is an offensive question. That member knows full well that I had no knowledge of any 2009 violence. He needs to withdraw and apologise.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am going to allow the member to rephrase that question. If you think about the question it is directly contrary to the information the Minister has just given in the answer to the primary question. I will give the opportunity—[Interruption] Order! I do not want to have to ask the member to leave particularly with a question on the Order Paper. Would the member please rephrase his question.Hon David Parker: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. A similar point of order was raised by Annette King in respect of the answer by Jonathan Coleman in respect of his suggestion that she was fabricating data that she had in a report before her. I would ask for consistency.Mr SPEAKER: The difficulty with the question—it is not in my mind a similar situation at all. The question then referred to the opening of a facility in 2009. The Minister had already answered that that was not the case. She has taken exception to the primary question. I will give the member a chance to ask the question.Kelvin Davis: Given that the Minister has said that there was a new prison opened were the prisoners in the old prison also in the new prison?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member might ask when in the last 5 years. The Mt Eden Corrections Facility now is primarily a remand prison. The average length of stay is 28 days. That member is talking about something that apparently occurred or he thinks it occurred now 7 years ago. They will not be the same prisoners—28 days is the average stay—and there are 30000 prisoner movements as in in and out of that prison every single year.Kelvin Davis: Can this Parliament expect more openness from her and her officials in the future about prison problems such as at the annual review hearing for the Department of Corrections tomorrow?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well really it is up to that member—for instance in a select committee inquiry or hearing—to ask questions. Today I have seen a member who has not done his homework who continues to state as questions things that are of dubious value and in 2009—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have a point of order from Kelvin Davis.Kelvin Davis: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked whether this Parliament could expect more openness from the Minister.Mr SPEAKER: And the Minister was addressing that question.Kelvin Davis: Does she believe that Serco’s management of Mt Eden Corrections Facility has lived up to the “high standards of professionalism safety rehabilitation and security expected by the Government” she placed on them in 2010?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: As that member well knows the relation of the report into Serco’s management is subject to a judicial review hearing and it would not be appropriate I think for me to comment on a matter that is before the courts.Kelvin Davis: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked her whether she believes they have lived up to the expectations that she expected of them in 2010.Mr SPEAKER: And the Minister in her answer in addressing that question said she did not want to go further with an answer because it was currently as I understood it under a judicial review. That is an answer a Minister can give. It might not satisfy the member but it still addresses the question.Kelvin Davis: How many more fight clubs investigations High Court cases and bashed prisoners will it take for her to admit that her prison privatisation agenda is a complete mess and a failure?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: For goodness’ sake! It might shock that member to know that when we get an awful lot of very violent males together in a prison sometimes they fight each other. None of that is acceptable which is why when they do—as they do when the Department of Corrections runs the prison or whether Serco runs the prison—strangely enough they are all prosecuted under the prison regulations and some of them actually get further penalties. So actually that happens in every prison. If only that member could actually go to visit someone other than Arthur Taylor and visit some of the prisoners who are not indulging in that behaviour. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I want less interjection from my right-hand side.Mahesh Bindra: Has Serco reimbursed the Crown for any costs incurred as a result of the step-in at Mt Eden Corrections Facility; if so has the reimbursement covered the cost of the seven managers 10 principal corrections officers and 30 officers employed by the Department of Corrections to perform the suspended services?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: My understanding is that that is a matter that is being dealt with at the moment and I cannot take that matter further.Mahesh Bindra: Who if any has been covering the normal duties of these seconded staff while they are doing Serco’s job for them and at what cost and to whom?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: As to the cost that is a matter that is being dealt with and as to who is doing it it is other corrections officers.