Corrections department defends iwi consultation

4.00pm

The Corrections Department has defended its $1.3 million bill for iwi consultation on its South Auckland men's prison at Meremere.

Corrections Minister Paul Swain said the $1.3m, over four years, was split between $875,000 for procurement of services and $438,000 for 48 marae hui and other meetings throughout Waikato.

"I consider the $1.3m figure to be excessive and I've asked for more information about the consultation costs for not just this prison but also the other three prisons currently under development," Mr Swain said in Parliament yesterday.

But department chief financial officer Richard Morris said the consultation costs were appropriate for the 650-bed prison, which will be the biggest built in New Zealand.

"This has been input into the design, especially (keeping) in mind that 50 per cent of the people who go into the facility we know will be Maori," Mr Morris told National Radio.

"It has included input into technical reporting on engineering, on sewage disposal and so forth.

"So they've played a major part not just in consultation around the facility itself but in the design and the stage we've got to so far."

In addition, more than 330 non-Maori had been consulted on the prison but officials had no value for that, Mr Morris said.

Iwi consultation included advice on consulting with the local community, input into the short-listing process and selection of the eventual proposed site and a detailed historical review of the site and its cultural significance, Mr Morris said.

It also included:

* Public consultation at 48 hui and other public meetings;

* preparation and review of the assessment of environmental effects, a report required under the Resource Management Act;

* a detailed review of the numerous engineering reports into the site;

* input into the management of water and sewage on the site, including the impact on Lake Waikare;

* assistance with the design and operating philosophy of the proposed facility;

* assistance with the design of proposed landscaping for the site.

In Parliament yesterday, Mr Swain tabled a document showing convicted fraudster Tom Moana was among Maori consulted, receiving $131,753 in 2001-02.

In 2002, Moana admitted 53 charges of using and altering documents with intent to defraud the disbanded Maori Health Commission of nearly $17,000.

Mr Swain said he was "seeking more information" on what it was that Moana had done to justify being paid $131,753.

Act Party MP Heather Roy asked Mr Swain whether paying for Maori consultation was a case of "one rule for Maori and one rule for everyone else", citing the case of prison neighbour Lyn Milnes.

Corrections told Mrs Milnes that it was not their policy to pay for consulting, "despite picking her brains about land stability, flooding, social considerations and so on," Mrs Roy said.

Mrs Milnes told NZPA that not only was she not paid for advice, she was also "bullied" into not opposing the prison through the Environment Court.

Mrs Milnes' 90 hectare farm borders the prison and she has provisional consent to subdivide it.

"The (department's) solicitors, Simpson Grierson, wrote me a letter saying very specifically last January 'if you take your opposition to the prison to court we will go to council and seek to have your subdivision reversed'," Mrs Milnes, 61, said.

"They were very specific. There was no two ways about it. If I joined in the Environment Court suit against them, on the prison... they would take steps against my subdivision.

"It's just a small farm subdivision but it's my retirement income, it's my superannuation policy."

The value of Mrs Milnes' farm had been reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the prison, she said.

The $1.3 million paid to Maori involved with the Meremere prison development was only 8 per cent of the $16 million spent on consultation, the Tainui iwi said today.

Tainui Corrections project team leader Tahi Ngakete said the $1.3 million paid to Waikato Maori for consultation on the Spring Hill prison was for four years' work.

That was a fraction of the Corrections Department's $16 million consultation spending, he said.

"We have run 48 hui and been heavily involved in ensuring the facilities are appropriate for Maori inmates."

A Corrections Department spokeswoman said the $16 million was the total spent on the project to date.

It included facility design, land purchase, getting resource management consent, and project management.

Mr Ngakete questioned the timing of the criticism, given the spending was first scrutinised in 2002.

"This is old news. The bulk of costs were incurred in the 2001-02 financial year."

He defended Maori involvement in the development.

"The majority of inmates will be Maori, it is important that iwi are involved in all stages of the prison development."

Tainui was paid around $200,000 a year to cover wages and administration costs for two full and one part-time staff member.

Work by the team included consultation with iwi and hapu, a detailed historical review of the proposed prison site, and environmental guidance.

Iwi would continue to work with the department, offering advice, staff for the prison and for the rehabilitation of prisoners, he said.

- NZPA