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Source: Thinkstock
We deal in dozens of facts and figures on each and every episode of Q+A, and this past Sunday we got into a debate about a claim reported in the New Zealand Herald regarding how much this country spends each year punishing people. Getting to the bottom of it all led to a rather depressing fact. But more of that shortly.
The Herald last week was saying that Finance Minister Bill English had told the Mood of the Boardroom conference that the Corrections Department's budget would "soon be the single biggest budget expenditure".
Discussing that on the panel, regular analyst Therese Arseneau pointed out that Vote Education and Health, for example, are much bigger bills that the taxpayer picks up, so the claim about Corrections couldn't be, well, correct.
What English actually told the conference, in response to a question from the floor, I'm told, was this:
"If you're wondering why the government is spending a lot of money, that's one reason. That's our fastest growing portfolio - Corrections will be in two or three years the largest government department, bigger than the Ministry of Social Development or the Inland Revenue Department."
The leader writer had got the wrong end of the stick, but the editorial's main point was sound - "Something is clearly awry when a government proclaims the economic benefits of a new prison".
Trying to argue that yet another new prison has some merit because it will bring $1.2 billion into the region around Wiri, south of Auckland, is just depressing. It also ignores the fact that much of the money being spent - wages and maintenance, for example - will be paid for by you and me. It's as much a drain on us all as it is a benefit for the folk living near the prison.
Indeed, Corrections estimates that it may need to "spend up to $915 million in capital over the next 10 years, and an additional $150 million in operating per annum by 2018/19 to meet demand and replace obsolete capacity", according to the National Infrastructure Unit. That's over $90m per year for the next ten years,
just building new places to lock people up.
Take another look at the Finance Minister's word. It's a statement that is as tragic as it is arresting. The amount of taxpayers' dollars being spent locking up law-
breakers is growing more rapidly than that being spent on the nation's health, on educating our children, on caring for our elderly, or on incentivising new businesses and new jobs. It doesn't feel very "ambitious for New Zealand" does it?
As new prison cells loom up over the motorway entry to our largest city, this nationwide need to imprison is becoming an unhealthy obsession. It's becoming a symbol of early 21st century New Zealand, and it's long past time to start asking, at what cost?
Tim Watkin is a producer for Q+A, live on Sundays from
9am on TV ONE.
Read more of Tim's articles here .
