Lee Melissa: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8142. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise to speak to the third reading of the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill. Before I get going on that I point out that it is ironic that the speaker who has just resumed her seat Carmel Sepuloni complained about constitutional rights; she was outnumbered on the select committee so she was voted down. I take this opportunity to apologise to the officials. The member who just spoke basically insulted the officials who actually helped us tremendously. I would like to thank them for their time and their tremendous help. 
I take a little moment to quote my taxi driver who dropped me off at the airport very early on Tuesday morning. When I told her that we would be debating this bill she said “It’s about”—I do not think I am allowed to say the next word—“[bleep] time.” I have to agree with her sentiments. 
Apart from the obvious ideologically driven objections from members opposite one of the main concerns raised during the deliberations of the Law and Order Committee was the issue of whether the privately managed prisons will be as accountable as the publicly managed prisons. Well the answer that we had the advice that we had and the discussions we had said yes. It was just that members opposite refused to listen to that. The Office of the Auditor-General can still audit the Department of Corrections. The cost and performance of the privately run prisons will still come under the jurisdiction of the department. Members of the Law and Order Committee were told that this morning by the chief executive. 
I have mentioned in debate on earlier stages of this bill that we are not selling the corrections system; we want only to look at options for the private management of our prisons. If I can quote my wise taxi driver again we cannot do any worse than we have done before. The Department of Corrections has had a terrible report card from the Audit Office. Mr Barker has referred in debate on previous stages of the bill to the woeful performance of the department. This bill provides an alternative a choice in how we manage our prison population. Members opposite may not like choice but to members on this side of the House choice is essential. It is wonderful. New ideas are being injected into a public entity that lacks innovation not only in management but also in inmate rehabilitation. It can only be a good thing to provide better options for all concerned. Prisoners will hopefully have a better rehabilitation rate prison management will have better outcomes and the public will feel safer for it. 
One of the reasons why I feel quite strongly that that will happen with this bill is that it sets standards in all aspects including care of prisoners performance standards training for staff etc. These standards are to be no lower than those of the publicly run publicly managed prisons. That means that they will definitely be better than what we already have. Standards across the board will have to be better in privately managed prisons. 
In my humble opinion we should all aspire to achieve better outcomes for all New Zealanders. I have heard many members opposite speaking passionately about wanting better outcomes for prisoners but if we simply continue on the same path in the area of corrections we will not improve. The Department of Corrections has struggled to produce better outcomes for our prisoners and the repeat offending rate is bloated. That the Opposition keeps opposing this bill is simply hypocritical as the previous Government did not improve the lot of inmates and the public did not feel safer for the 9 years that Labour was in Government. We need to improve we need to innovate and we need to change for the better. This bill will provide that opportunity for the Department of Corrections. Hence I commend this bill to the House.