11. Question No. 11—CorrectionsDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 11—Corrections11. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Minister of Corrections: Does he have confidence in the Department of Corrections?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Yes. There are areas where I have concerns: the treatment of two women in Auckland prison and the incident at Waikeria. Both are currently being investigated by the Office of the Inspectorate and I'll receive their reports on these matters in due course.Rawiri Waititi: Why does he have confidence in the department when inmates at Waikeria were placed in a 1911 building that had been previously decommissioned—a building the Ombudsman concluded was unfit for human habitation?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Because let's go back to when the Māori Party and the National Party were in Government. The Māori Party had an Associate Minister of Corrections and they oversaw the mass incarceration of Māori. They also failed to have a Māori strategy. This Government is a Government that said that that was enough and we need to look at alternative ways and other solutions. Those solutions have seen the implementation of a Māori strategy known as Hōkai Rangi and have also seen the reduction of the numbers of Māori that have been reduced by over 800 since we became Government. Therefore what Corrections is doing is working. There are things that we do need to continue to work on but changing the operations of a whole department will not happen overnight. Rawiri Waititi: How can he continue to have confidence in the department when he was informed in late 2019 that the old jail block at Waikeria with its double-bunking brown tap water and open toilets that inmates were forced to eat food around was unacceptable and not fit for human habitation and yet inmates continued to be treated this way under his watch?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: As I say when the Māori Party had the Associate Minister of Corrections those same conditions actually existed. The Māori Party actually needs to own its history and own its mistakes. Also Corrections have come out and explained that the water in the Waikeria Prison was bore water and bore water happens to be brown. It was tested six days a week—the same water that Corrections officers drunk. Also the other allegations from former prisoners have come out and they actually said that those allegations about the lack of ability to wash clothes and bedding were absolutely false.Ginny Andersen: Is the Minister aware of any publications inciting riots being distributed to prisoners?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Yes. A publication encouraging prisoners to riot quoting a member of the Māori Party has been distributed. I said from the beginning that politicians involving themselves in some corrections matters would only serve to embolden and encourage more events that endanger the lives of prisoners and staff. It was then—Chris Bishop: This is tawdry. This is cheap.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: —and it is now irresponsible behaviour. This publication is being referred to the police. And I hear the member over there saying that this is cheap. The member over there is basically encouraging the incitement of disorder in prisons by saying that this publication is acceptable. He is endangering the lives of corrections officers and it is unacceptable.Rawiri Waititi: Will he commission a ministerial inquiry into the treatment of inmates in the Department of Corrections facilities in response to Waikeria and yesterday's ruling by Judge David McNaughton that inmates at Auckland women's prison were treated in an inhumane and degrading manner?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The Office of the Inspectorate is already investigating the allegations made about the treatment of women at Auckland women's prison as well as the incident in Waikeria. I have been briefed on the situation and have asked Corrections for more information on the allegations made about them.Rawiri Waititi: Point of order. The question was: Will he commission a ministerial inquiry into the treatment of inmates?"SPEAKER: There was probably some unnecessary stuff at the end. The Minister clearly said the inspector-general was already inquiring."