Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2)
In Committee
NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki) : It is worthwhile making a contribution, particularly on clauses 1, 2, and 3, including the title. I can think of a whole lot of names for this bill: the “Corrections Amendment Bill (No. 2)”, or the “Labour Sitting on its Hands and Doing Nothing Bill”, and the list could go on. Fortunately, this is a Government that is keen to progress things and get on top of this legislation. It is important to realise the parameters of this bill. We have had some very good contributions from the Committee this evening, and I thought it worthwhile summarising this bill and what it captures. It captures a lot, and it has gone through a very robust select committee process. It will toughen up what happens at the moment in the Department of Corrections, and I believe that it is very important that we do more. The Minister, Judith Collins, made a very good contribution, talking about the cellphone towers and the current plans the Minister has lined up in that regard. They are simple little things like extending the powers for searches, which one would presume was common sense. This is making another important step progressing towards that.
In regard to toughening up on contraband—we all know that this stuff is smuggled through; it is thrown over the fence. Things have to improve in that regard. We have heard the Minister talk about prohibiting communication. These prisoners are very shrewd. They can get on the cellphone or the landline and have coded conversations. Some of them can run gangs from inside the prison fence. This bill goes quite a long way towards toughening up the law in that regard.
We had very good contributions from other members on this side of the Chamber this evening. Simon Power talked about the special contribution made through the select committee process. All in all, this bill is a step in the right direction, and I commend the Minister for bringing it forward to the Chamber this evening. This is a very, very busy Government. We are getting on, and we are trying to make our communities safer.