13 July 2002

The Greens are living in the land of Teletubbies if they think that New Zealand can afford not to have new regional prisons, Corrections Minister Matt Robson says.

“First they want drugs legalised, now they want to get rid of prisons. This is a completely irresponsible and opportunistic approach to law and order.

“I’m closing the old style slop-bucket prisons like Dunedin (which will close shortly) and Mt Eden prison. You’d think that the Greens would get in behind and support that.

“And if I’m closing old prisons, I need to build new ones. As Minister I have begun building new regional prisons which keep offenders close to their families and community networks.

“This mean that when they’re released from prison, families can take responsibility for them, and they are less likely to re-offend.

“But the Greens obviously don’t support that either.

“I also need new prisons because the government’s new Sentencing and Parole legislation will see more of the worst offenders in prisons for longer. I need about 300 new beds on any given day, once this legislation takes effect.

“Obviously the Greens are against that too.

“God help us if the Greens get anywhere near the day to day running of the next government. I’d rather have the Teletubbie’s Dipsy as my associate Minister of Corrections than the Green’s Nandor.

Ends

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