Hon Christopher Finlayson

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): Can I begin by saying that I have not spoken in the House since you became Assistant Speaker, Mr Barker, and I am delighted you are Assistant Speaker, wish you all the best, and congratulate you on your appointment.

As other members have said, the Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2) amends the Corrections Act 2004 to create new search, detection, drug-testing, and offence provisions to help control contraband. The bill will make it harder for people to bring prohibited items into prison and make it easier to detect prohibited items and punish prisoners and others for using them. The bill will increase controls over prisoners’ communications with the outside world, enable the screening of mail, and—most important—adopt a zero tolerance approach to those staff who pass contraband to prisoners. The previous Government, notwithstanding what Mr Cosgrove said, has failed to deliver on numerous important pieces of legislation on law and order, and the failure to pass this bill represents one of them. It was too slow to introduce this bill and, indeed, it introduced it only after the then National Opposition shamed it into it, and then Labour allowed it to languish for almost a year. In doing so it unnecessarily put the safety of prison staff and the public at risk. But fortunately for New Zealanders we now have a Government with a comprehensive law and order policy, and we support this bill because it attempts to deal with issues that have been very important for a number of years.

The Government supports the bill because it will enable us to crack down on crime being committed from behind bars. It significantly enhances the ability of the Department of Corrections to control contraband and to suppress unlawful communications in prisons. We believe it will improve safety and security within the prison system and it will give guards more powers to search cells. The bill also contributes to the effectiveness of drug and alcohol programmes in prisons because such programmes simply will not be successful if prisoners have ready access to drugs. The bill means it will be harder for anyone to bring prohibited items into our prisons and easier to detect such items and punish prisoners and others for using them. This will help curb the intimidation and stand-over tactics that are associated with the presence of contraband in prisons. Specifically, the bill is going to do a number of things. It enhances existing powers and procedures for strip searching prisoners, it provides for random searches of areas such as staff lockers, it supports the integrity of drug testing in prisons by strengthening the measures against tampering with samples, and it tightens offence provisions relating to contraband. It will be an imprisonable offence for a prisoner to possess or use an electronic communication device such as a cellphone, and for anyone to possess an unauthorised item without reasonable excuse while visiting or working in a prison.

The bill also contains important measures to control prisoners’ communications. It is clear that letters containing threats, plans for further offending, and other prohibited communications are, in fact, leaving prisons. Current legislation permits prison staff to read prisoners’ mail only if a reasonable grounds test is met. In most cases there are, on the face of it, no reasonable grounds to suspect that a particular letter may need to be examined, so the bill provides that all prisoners’ mail may be read by an authorised officer, except correspondence with official agencies, members of Parliament, or legal advisers. Cellphones are not permitted in prisons and have been used for such harmful purposes as organising crimes--

Hon Phil Goff: I notice that the member on his feet is reading word for word the speech that I wrote as Minister of Corrections, and I wondered whether I could seek leave of the House to have him table the speech, which is not his speech, and save the time of the House.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: You are asking for the member to--

Hon Phil Goff: I am seeking leave for a copy of the speech that I wrote and that the member is now reading to be tabled.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: You cannot ask another member to table.

Hon Phil Goff: I am seeking leave to table the speech that the member is reading. It is plagiarism, because I wrote it and he is reading it.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is objection.

Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can you help me out? Are there rules against plagiarism in this House when a member reads, word for word, a speech written by another member without acknowledging that he is doing so by admission?

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: These are debating points, and I am sure the member, when he takes his call, will change a few words if he feels that way inclined.

Hon Phil Goff: Do you wish to be corrections Minister, Chris?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Oh no. I am a sort of a stand-in for the Minister who is visiting a prison at the moment, but I must say that in so far as there is some overlap between the contribution of the former Minister of Corrections and this speech, at least the member will acknowledge that I can read the speech properly, unlike that member when he was trying to read questions from the sheet, like his colleague the member for Te Atatū earlier in the week, and he could not read--

Hon Darren Hughes: I thought he was Minister of Education.

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: No, but he was. I have learnt that. He is no longer the Minister or Education or is likely ever to be the Minister of Education again.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: What about the law of copyright?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: No, I can tell the member that there is no Crown copyright here, and if the member would like to try to sue me for what I am saying I suggest he will need a better lawyer than me to get me.

Hon Phil Goff: I think the proof is very obvious, actually. It would be an easy case to prove.

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: The danger will, of course, be quantum of damages and matters such as that, but if the member wants to go ahead and try to do that, good luck to him.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I would be happy to write all your speeches, Chris!

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Well, not that member because I notice that the member for Waimakariri gave a spirited speech today, but apparently he must have a “Reader’s Digest Guide to the English Language”, because his word for the day is “salacious”. He must have repeated it like a litany about 15 times.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I knew you were getting excited. You were sweating.

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I was. I was looking forward to some salacious details from the member and I certainly did not get any. The point is that cellphones are going to be properly monitored within prisons and, as I think everyone would admit, the implementation of these solutions is now well advanced, and it is accepted that legislation is required to deal with these issues, and I am sure, as the Leader of the Opposition would acknowledge, and would probably say in a speech that he would give in the House, communication with a prisoner may, indeed, cause grave distress to victims, particularly if it results in publication--

Hon Phil Goff: “the publication of details of the offence, or the victim” the member was going to say!

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: That is exactly correct.

There are a number of important issues that are raised with this bill, and I am delighted that the Opposition is adopting such a constructive approach, and by a process of ESP is apparently not only picking up the essential themes of the bill and parroting them, but also anticipating exactly the kind of contribution I am going to make.

Hon Darren Hughes: We are in Opposition; we are here to help!

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Of course, the boy wonder from Ōtaki is here to help, and I look forward to having my by-election campaign with him in that highly marginal seat of Rongotai when the deputy leader of the Labour Party leaves in the not too distant future.

I think the Law and Order Committee did a very good job dealing with this legislation. It has recommended a number of amendments that I am sure the Leader of the Opposition has not had the opportunity to speak on in the first reading contribution. For example, and this will not be covered by any copyright, it strengthens forfeiture provisions in the bill and it has improved the provision prohibiting possession of unauthorised items while in prison by changing the test from “knowingly” to “without reasonable excuse”. I am sure the member for Waimakariri would immediately pick up the slight change in the test. It is a salacious change and a very important one. So there we are, these are important first steps in this legislation to improving what has been an unsatisfactory situation, and I take the opportunity to signal that this law and order Government will be introducing further measures to improve the safe, secure, humane, and effective management of the prison system.