Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis.

“Despite all of this Government’s talk about bipartisanship on infrastructure and the importance of long-term planning and investment, Labour wasn’t briefed on this,” Labour corrections spokesperson Tracey McLellan said.

“The National Party thinks PPPs are the solution to all problems, but they often end up costing us more. This isn’t how we would’ve gone about it – it is unclear what the ongoing costs over 25 years will be, whether it is good value for taxpayer money, or even if it is cheaper or better than what public investment would do.

“They are already planning to spend $800 million on only the first phase of this project, so New Zealanders are paying for this regardless.

“Previous iterations of PPPs in prisons have gone terribly wrong – but at least National has learned its lesson on operations and this facility will continue to be run by Corrections.

“This is a backwards announcement. We shouldn’t be building more beds to lock more people up and this kind of investment should be going towards reducing crime and increasing rehabilitation,” Tracey McLellan said

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