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:8112. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise in this debate to take a short call to talk about some of these things. It is interesting that we actually agree on both sides of the Chamber that there is a huge divide in our ideological differences—the things we believe in. That is a given and we agree and that is fantastic. But I would like to talk about perspective. The members opposite lack perspective. It was very very interesting to listen to some of the members opposite talk about numbers. Do they not even understand the numbers when they quote numbers from the history of the Auckland Central Remand Prison? It was in fact the former Labour Government that came into power and decided to get rid of it because it did not agree with it. There was an ideological difference. But the prison worked better. It had better outcomes. The prisoners had better outcomes. They were getting a better rehabilitation process yet the previous Labour Government got rid of it because it simply did not agree with the idea. 
Let me just answer the Hon Lianne Dalziel who has just resumed her seat. What she said about privatising different things—the police the military—was very interesting. I think the only person in this House who has ever agreed or talked about privatising the military sits on the other side of the Chamber and belongs to the Labour Party. His name is David Shearer. Goodness me! 
I will bring up some of the things that some members have talked about. Talk about propaganda! Apples versus apples apples versus oranges! There have been no other remand centres that they could compare the Auckland Central Remand Prison with but they keep continuing to bring up the costs. They keep continuing to compare the numbers. Do they not understand even basic numbers—maths? I am so glad the Hon Anne Tolley is introducing maths and numeracy properly in our schools. Perhaps Labour members should all go back to school. 
I will talk about what Mr Barker said earlier during the debate. Mr Barker said that the Minister of Corrections and the Department of Corrections have vested interests and hence could massage the figures. But I say that perhaps that is what happened when Labour was in Government. Perhaps that is the reason he is suggesting it. Massaging the numbers—my goodness! There are no numbers with which to compare Auckland Remand—I cannot even speak now; I am so excited—Auckland Central Remand Prison. 
Carmel Sepuloni came up with all those numbers of people who are escaping from prison—so many of them—yet she opposes this bill. That is unbelievable. She cannot come to grips with the fact that perhaps we have a really really—as Mr Barker would say—woeful performance by the Department of Corrections under the previous Labour Government. Let me say that escape numbers have halved since this Government the National Government has taken over. Yet Labour members are opposed to the idea that perhaps there would be a better choice and a better option for the public and for safety and better outcomes for prisoners’ rehabilitation. I cannot understand why Labour members would oppose that. 
Somebody else over on the other side talked about transparency. When they try to say that the Auditor-General and the chief executive cannot control a privately managed prison do they actually know what they are saying? That is just utterly ridiculous. The chief executive of the Department of Corrections this morning in the Law and Order Committee said that he is the boss of the Department of Corrections and that yes he will be able to monitor the private management of a prison—as I said private management. We are not lumping up all the prisons and selling them. It is not the privatisation of all prisons. We are actually saying that best international practice could be adopted to improve the situation in this country where the Department of Corrections has failed in its duties—which is woeful as Mr Barker has said. You know perhaps we might have a better benchmark against what has happened in the last 9 years of the previous Labour Government. It is improving since the current Minister of Corrections took over. 
There is also something else that somebody on the other side of the Chamber said. Lianne Dalziel also said that business in the private sector could be bad but in the public sector it is good. We all work in the public sector. We are all members of Parliament. We are here to do good for the public. We have never actually said that public is bad.