Wiri will cost more than $300 million

Green Party MP David Clendon is ready to bet a night behind bars that the private prison at Wiri will cost more to build than the $300 million claimed by the Minister of Corrections.

“John Key’s Government is misleading the public on the economic and social costs of building the private prison at Wiri,” said Mr Clendon, Green Party Corrections spokesperson.

Yesterday Judith Collins claimed building the private prison at Wiri using a private-public partnership (PPP) will cost $298 million. In April, Beven Hanlon, President of the Corrections Association of New Zealand estimated the cost at $500 million.

“Interestingly, the Minister has not released the report her claims are based on so it is difficult to know how they came up with this low estimate.

“I’m willing to bet the Wiri corporate prison will cost well over $300 million. If the Minister gets it built for $298 million, I will spend the night in Wiri jail,” said Mr Clendon.

Evidence from the US and Australia shows that private prisons do not reduce costs for the Government. Research from New South Wales suggests that prisoner safety is compromised because of the focus on profit.

“The use of a PPP to build the prison will not save the public any money. PPPs leave the public locked into fixed contracts with private investors who make easy money from the asset, while the public bears all the risk if anything goes wrong," said Mr Clendon.

“Private prisons are internationally renowned for corruption and the abuse of prisoners and staff. We do not want to see them built in New Zealand

“Private prisons have to make a profit, which means, either cut backs on staffing levels and rehabilitation, or charging more per prisoner, as we saw with the Auckland remand prison last time it was privately run.”

“The community and public sector have lots of good innovative ideas about how the prison system can be improved, the Government should listen to them rather than flogging off prison management to corporations.

For more information

Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects -Myth busting, Australia Institute of Project Management(www.aipm.com.au/html/media_release_public_private_partnership_ppp_projects.cfm)

Financing Infrastructure Projects: Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), Treasury report 2006 (www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/research-policy/ppp/2006/06-02/tpp06-02.pdf)

Privatisation and New South Wales Prisons, - http://blog.greens.org.nz/wp-content/dcahill_jandrew_value-for-money.pdf

Emerging Issues on Privatised Prisons, US Department of Justice- http://blog.greens.org.nz/wp-content/doj_emerging-issues-2.pdf

ENDS

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