Dialogue: Fighting an arrogant bureaucracy hopeless

By CATHY ARONSON

If anyone in the country can feel dumped on, it is the people of the northern Waikato. In December, the Corrections Department announced a so-called short list of two sites near Meremere and Te Kauwhata for a 650-inmate men's prison. The plan drew an angry reaction from locals - and with good reason.

They are already fighting in the Environment Court against a supertip proposed by EnviroWaste, which will eventually fill a valley at Hampton Downs, between Meremere and Te Kauwhata, to a depth of 23 storeys and cover an area 1.5km by 800m. The two proposed jail sites are just north and just south of the landfill.

The problem with the Corrections Department's sales line on the prison is that it has not changed its tune. The department has been trying for three years to find a site for a new South Auckland prison site. Its sales pitch has gone down poorly with affected locals, who simply don't want it in their backyard.

Corrections spokeswoman Mary Craythorne stood up at a public consultation meeting with northern Waikato residents at Meremere a fortnight ago and said: "It's obvious you want to cut to the chase and ask questions about the prison, so I have no presentation to make. Thank you."

The crowd of about 150 farmers, families, hapu, iwi and politicians were momentarily silenced. Even before the start of the meeting they were firing questions at department officials. By the end of the meeting their questions remained unanswered and the residents passed a resolution against the prison.

Two years ago, Ms Craythorne made a prison presentation to a crowd of 400 in Drury with the same lack of success. It was the same proposal, but her hard-sell presentation was tarted up with overhead projector graphs of the economic benefits of housing a prison and why South Auckland had to take ownership of its burgeoning crime rate.

No one knows exactly why the South Auckland prison project was halted two months before the 1999 general election. The next time the plan popped up, a week before Christmas last year, the department had moved the site south into the northern Waikato.

But what had been designed to sell the prison to South Aucklanders became the department's downfall in Meremere and Te Kauwhata. Although Corrections had spared no expense by continuing to hire its consultants and community liaison people for the past three years, it had not changed its info-pack.

The same information sheets referred to South Auckland's crime rate, its infrastructure, proximity to courts and support services and, most important, the need to site it close to relatives or public transport to aid inmates' rehabilitation. The department said the economic benefits would be $28 million a year during the two-year construction phase, and annual benefits of $11.6 million on staff, $3 million on goods and services and 250 jobs.

It did not factor in that Te Kauwhata and Meremere do not have all the goods and services the jail would need, nor a big construction company to build the prison. The benefits for locals would seem to be nil.

The department did not really have an answer to the concerns raised by north Waikato residents. Perhaps department officials were surprised at how well thought out their arguments were. Perhaps they didn't care because a fight with the Meremere and Te Kauwhata locals was nothing compared with the size and strength of the potential opposition in South Auckland.

Two of the three South Auckland councils, Papakura and Franklin, had formally opposed a prison in their district. Manukau was not so forthright but was already saturated with a proposed youth justice and women's prison.

Northern Waikato, however, was a soft target. The landfill had already dented the real estate market, farmers were willing to sell to the department and there were fewer residents to fight it. And when the department applies for a prison designation, the Waikato District Council can only make a recommendation, not decline it. If it recommends against it, the Corrections Minister can simply ignore it. The only option left is an expensive fight in the Environment Court.

Ultimately, the department has the right to seize the land for the Crown, a measure it has assured locals it would not do lightly. But the process raises the question why the department even bothers to hand out information packs and hire costly consultants to give people garbled information which they don't want to hear.

The 0800 consultation number should be disconnected, the iwi and community liaison people, economists, consultants and public relations specialist should be fired and the money spent compensating landowners.

Mary Craythorne should have just stood up at the meeting a fortnight ago and said: "It's obvious you want to cut to the chase and know what's going on, so I'll tell you - the department will build a prison in the northern Waikato to house South Auckland inmates. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Resistance is futile. Thank you."