Alliance Ministers should accept the blame for the Corrections Department being forced to offer bribes to potential objectors to new prisons says ACT's Justice spokesman Stephen Franks.

"The government is simply having to do what every private New Zealander has to consider to get through RMA hurdles.

"The solution lies in the hands of the Hon Sandra Lee, Corrections Minister Robson's Alliance comrade. She is responsible for the Whitianga Waterways debacle and for failing to ensure that sensible amendments to the Resource Management Act made their way through the House. Instead even the weak improvements to the RMA in the current bill have been reversed in select committee, with Alliance support.

"When his officials are forced into supporting the spurious RMA objection industry to get important progress on a prison, Mr Robson can't stay silent. He should say whether he will support proper RMA reform to eliminate these wasted costs of development," Mr Franks said.

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