Simon Power MP
National Party Justice & Corrections Spokesman

18 December 2007

So where is PM’s response to Ombudsman’s report?

National’s Justice & Corrections spokesman, Simon Power, is asking why the Government has still not responded to the Ombudsman’s report into the criminal justice sector nearly two weeks after it was released.

“Where is the Prime Minister’s response?

“Two weeks ago in Parliament, the best Justice Minister Annette King could say in response to questions was ‘We will consider all the issues in the report in due course.’

“This report highlights some extremely important issues but so far that has been the sum response from the Government.

“Is this because the report was so critical of Labour’s mismanagement – saying the sector is suffering from a loss of public and political confidence and that this was putting the system at ‘serious risk’ – that it is scrambling around trying to find something good in it?

“Or is it because, when Helen Clark called for the Ombudsman’s report after the Graeme Burton fiasco, it was a matter of convenience which suited her at the time but doesn’t now?

“Labour’s lack of leadership in the criminal justice sector is so obvious that the Ombudsman was forced to suggest a commission of inquiry into the sector.

“We need some urgent action on this report.

“And perhaps Helen Clark can tell us where the Patten report into corruption at Rimutaka Prison is. It has now been going for 13 months.”

ENDS

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