Connell Brian: General Debates 
Connell Brian: General Debates 
[Volume:613;Page:9964] 
BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 Martin Gallagher MP is confirmation that New Zealand really is the land of unlimited opportunity. I say to Clayton Cosgrove that the last time I heard an outburst like that was when I was standing behind one of the bulls on the farm—and it was fresher. I want to allay some of Mr Robson’s fears also about Kiwibank. What a joke that bank is! It is an indictment on Jim Anderton that he was ever associated with it. Michael Cullen knows Kiwibank is a dog. It will not be sold because nobody will buy it. Its book is appalling and the large banks do not want it. It will not be given away so I tell Mr Robson not to fret. 
I would now like to turn my attention in a little more detail to the Department of Corrections and in particular to the performance of Paul Swain. 
Simon Power 
: A good idea. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: I think it is a good idea; yes I do. Mr Swain is new in the role of Minister so I think he can be forgiven for falling into the classic trap of believing everything he is told by his advisers. We can put that down to his limited managerial experience. Last week the Minister was asked a patsy question which read like this: “How has the Department of Corrections under the leadership of the current chief executive performed over the last 5 years?”. We got back the usual wishy-washy nonsense but the Minister omitted some key points. We will call that selective memory loss. He did not mention staff turnover in the psychological services or at headquarters. When averaged out staff turnover is about 22.5 percent. That is indicative of a sick organisation—one that has appalling staff morale lacks direction and suffers from a crisis of confidence. This morning I had the opportunity to ask the chief executive officer why staff turnover was so high. I asked him to tell me whether the organisation did exit interviews. He looked at me said no and asked what they were. Exit interviews are pretty standard management tools but he still had no idea what they were. All that I really got was a shake of his shoulders. 
The Minister did not mention certain statistics when he reported on the performance of the department over the last 5 years. The department has investigated 151 prison employees in the past 12 months for breaches of its rules. That really sounds like a department that is cooking on gas! Nor did the Minister mention the emergency response unit better known as the “goon squad”. The appalling activities of that unit are subject to an inquiry and I commend the Minister for that. At least that is progress. However there has been a systematic cover-up of the unit’s performance over the last few years and despite the scurry of secret management meetings in Christchurch motels the truth will come out. I would say that right at the moment some of the senior managers in the department are feeling rather nervous. 
The Minister is now turning his attention to getting rid of the department’s only shining star. The central remand prison in Auckland is privately managed and it costs less to keep prisoners there than in the State-run prisons—in fact tens of thousands of dollars less. That prison is run more efficiently has a better environment physically and emotionally and has better rehabilitation programmes for prisoners than the State-run prisons. Prisoners are treated with more dignity and respect turnover is exceedingly low and morale is extremely high. However the Minister now wants to terminate the contract to run that prison and one must ask why that is. The answer is that the union powerhouse of the Labour Government which is the Government in drag wants to terminate the contract because that prison is an embarrassment to the unions. The union said their members were demanding action so the Minister is caving in despite the fact that there is daylight between the performance of the two organisations. 
I ask the Minister why he does not demonstrate some courage and do the right thing. He should stand up and be a man instead of being led around by the nose by his union mates or he should resign for goodness’ sake!