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National has revealed that its law and order policy plans mean it will have to build a new prison somewhere in its first term if it wins this year's election.
National has yet to unveil all of its law and order policies, but internal calculations of their effects have led the party to conclude it will need to build a new prison in its first three years in power.
The potentially expensive flow-on effect of tougher law and order policies will eat into the already limited amount of money National's finance spokesman, Bill English, has to use as he calculates his alternative Budget.
National's justice spokesman Simon Power said yesterday he did not know where the new prison might be sited, which is likely to be a controversial aspect of the plan.
"I'm not in government at this stage, I haven't got any idea about what's a suitable location and what's not," Mr Power told TVNZ's Agenda programme.
He later told the Herald that National has another three or four parts of its law and order policy to announce, and together with what had already been released, a new prison would be needed.
Corrections Minister Phil Goff said last night new prisons were expensive to build, and several had been built in recent years. "There's got to be a point where you say building more and more is not the answer."
Mr Goff said projections still showed the prison population of 7700 would go up, but the use of electronic monitoring and home detention in appropriate circumstances - with support such as drug and alcohol programmes - would help.
National is facing tightening fiscal constraints as it attempts to draw up its financial plan for the election campaign, and Mr English acknowledged he did not have an unlimited amount to spend.
But the idea of a new prison had been "around for some time" within National.
