Corrections Amendment Bill (No 2)

I will take just a quick call on Part 2, and, in particular, clause 32(2)(b), which relates to matters of interception of a private communication and proposes an amendment to the Crimes Act 1961 by further amendment of section 216B(4). I think it would be worth the Minister in the chair, the Hon Judith Collins, giving the Committee a bit of a guide on this issue of interception of communication, and, in particular, how crucial that form of surveillance will be. Members will note that my request is in direct reference to those matters as they relate to the Crimes Act. This is, from memory of what was said at the Law and Order Committee, a very complex matter that involves both Vodafone and Telecom having agreements of understanding—or something like that—with the Department of Corrections.

The other interesting thing, as I understand it, is that no one technology around a cell tower will work necessarily at all prisons. Different types of technologies have to be used in different types of prisons, depending on their configuration, and, obviously their location. For example, at the old Mount Eden Prison, my understanding from the select committee, was that should those towers close to Mount Eden be blocked for the purposes of cellphone use within that prison—of course it begs the question why inmates have cellphones in the first place—there may be a risk that that will affect the wider population. So different technologies are used. I know that the Minister in the chair has a particular interest in this matter because I heard her discuss it briefly in Part 1. But I think that in reference to the Crimes Act and the amendment to that enactment, it would be worth the Committee getting a bit of further information from the Minister.

I thank the member who has just resumed his seat, the Hon Simon Power, for that very helpful contribution to Part 2. He is quite right: there is very, very involved technology in terms of this area. The reason for that is the topography of the area, and what else is involved around Mount Eden Prison. It is in an extremely built-up area; the motorway is right beside the prison. There are all sorts of issues, but I can tell the Minister that the Department of Corrections has made very good progress in that regard, and we are getting far better cooperation from the other agencies that need to be involved in this issue than we had before the election. Certainly, since the election the department seems to have realised that this is an extraordinarily important issue.

As that member has referred to, this issue is very important going forward. I have certainly been appalled by the knowledge that in the Operation Web case there was so much use of cellphones in and from Pāremoremo maximum security prison, including all sorts of guises used in order to access it. Then we found out that it was our own department, under a Labour Government, that not only allowed this to happen but also entered into signed contracts between the Department of Corrections, Vodafone, and Telecom to have cellphone towers placed inside Pāremoremo maximum security prison. That was one of the stunning results of my asking questions about what was really holding up this issue.

Of course, the department is taking this extremely seriously now. Its staff are working very well with Telecom and Vodafone to address it. As the member quite rightly said, it is very difficult to address the issue of cellphones cited inside the prison, because blocking mechanisms have to be used to stop cellphone access from within the prison. At the same time, cellphone access needs to be allowed for the legitimate users around the area of Pāremoremo. From what the Department of Corrections has said in its reports to me, it looks like that is now progressing.

We had some issues with some of the providers, and one in particular that needed to have some discussions about just how serious this issue is. We cannot have our prisons, particularly our maximum security prisons, being used as a base for major drug-dealing as they were under the previous Government. It is extremely important that we give the Department of Corrections the power and ability to deal with this.

I heard all sorts of excuses about the fact that cellphones did not used to be as small as that back then, so nobody thought about the possibility. Frankly, that is just rubbish. Many of us had very small cellphones in the late 1990s, in 2000, and in 2004. SIM cards have been around for a very long time, too—particularly for those who use the Vodafone network. We understand that. There have been all sorts of excuses handed up, and none of them have been acceptable. At the end of the day, we did not see the previous Minister getting excited about this, and we did not see ministerial involvement until the change of Government. That is one of the jobs that Ministers have to do: they have to provide leadership, they have to say that standards are going to be expected, and they have to be held to account.

Certainly, it is incredibly important that this legislation goes through, and that is why we are very supportive of it. I am sorry to hear that the Greens are not supporting it. I do not know why they would not want to have this provision dealt with. I am pleased that Labour finally brought this legislation to Parliament before it was thrown out of Government, and we are very happy to help get it through the House.