CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:01): Mr Speaker, given that the minister has said in his remarks that he thinks that is not the case—

The SPEAKER: That what is not the case?

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —that it is not the case that Correctional Services staff are one of the top four ways in which contraband is brought into prisons, does that mean that he disagrees with the CEO of the Department for Correctional Services, who told me that?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:02): I am glad that the shadow is compounding his errors. The most obvious thing that I would do would be to establish the facts, which I did, and I received a briefing. The way in which drugs are entering our prison system is, by and large—nearly 100 per cent—by way of visitor interaction. There is no evidence of systemic corruption within the Correctional Services workforce and, also, there is no evidence to support the other claim that the member for Stuart made this morning that contractors doing building work in our prisons are also corrupt.