Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill

Madam Speaker,

It is great to see the final stages of this Bill making their way through the House just before we rise for this term of Parliament, and I would like to thank both the previous two speakers, Hon Phil Goff and Judith Collins for your and your parties’ support for this Bill.

While this Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill marks a very small reform within the context of our whole problematic prison system, it is certainly a change whose time has come.

We had the first reading debate on this Bill in June 2006, well over two years ago now. It has been a much longer haul than I expected for a Bill that has been nowhere near as controversial as, for example, trying to change child discipline laws or to abolish discriminatory youth wages.

This Bill achieves a few comparatively simple things.

First, once it comes into force, some mothers in prison will be able to keep their babies with them for up to two years, rather than the six months currently allowed. At the moment there is also at times a grace period of up to nine months for some mothers – this three month grace period may also in future be extended on top of the two years, in certain circumstances.

Secondly, mothers who are on remand or who are sentenced prisoners with a high security classification will, for the first time, in some cases have the option to have their babies live with them in prison.

And thirdly, the new law will provide more of a mandate to prison authorities to ensure that if a child in a mother’s care is being breastfed, she will be given opportunity and space to do so. At the same time, the Bill does not discriminate against mothers who cannot or are not breastfeeding – they will have the same option of keeping the baby with them where circumstances allow.

There were two major reasons for my placing this Bill in the Private Member’s ballot in the first place.

I was first of all struck by stories from groups working with women in prison of mothers being refused any chance to breastfeed their newborn baby, and of prison authorities in some cases using the right to breastfeed as a way of keeping women in line, to be granted or denied at the will of Corrections officers.

At a time when health authorities around the world and our own government here at home are promoting breast feeding as the best possible start in life - where mothers can manage it - it seemed to me unbelievable that the best interests of the child could be served so poorly, and in such a cavalier fashion.

On this matter, I would like to quote from the commentary to the Bill, signed up to by all members on the Select Committee, which says, among other things, that, quote: ’When there is no other reason to terminate the placement (of a baby with an imprisoned mother) we expect that removing access to breastfeeding will not be used as a tool of prison management or discipline.’

I hope that this message will be sent very clearly throughout the Corrections Service right away – it is not something that requires special budgets or the building of new facilities. I also hope that there will be more encouragement within Corrections of mothers to feed and bond with their babies, even when they are unable to keep them with them fulltime.

The second primary motivating factor for my putting this Bill forward was that I have for a long time been moved, as anyone of us here tonight who has breastfeed and nurtured their own children would be, by the torment suffered by mothers who either suddenly find themselves without their baby or have their baby removed as a result of imprisonment or the rules around their security classification.

I had also at one time in my life, in the wake of the Springbok Tour, gone through a High Court case where the risk of possible imprisonment was high, at a time when I was breastfeeding my own newborn daughter. On the day the eight of us involved were about to be sentenced I realised the full horror of what it would mean to be separated from Katie for months or years, and I will always be grateful to the Judge in that case who gave us all a suspended sentence.

There are heart rending stories, some of which we heard during the Select Committee process, of mothers who went through the emotional rollercoaster of being told, while pregnant, that they could and then couldn’t keep their baby in an on-again off-again fashion that is absolutely devastating. We heard of the grief and trauma of having your baby taken from your arms after the allocated time was up.

We heard of women who have turned their lives around after being allowed the privilege of keeping their babies with them – evidence came to us that for some women, the opportunity to keep their baby with them in prison was lifechangingly positive. We’ve also heard of the opposite effect on the chances of rehabilitation when your baby is torn away from you.

The Bill we are passing today won’t solve all the problems of all mothers with babies in prison but it will certainly improve things for some. Its priority, and this should be noted, is to put the interests of the child first – and to ensure that mothers who are enabled to keep their babies with them are fit to do so.

Babies will only be placed with their mother if she wants to have the baby with her, and if she signs a parenting agreement with a wide range of conditions. Mothers will also only be able to keep their babies if suitable facilities are available in the prison system for mother and child.

In the final stages of the Bill the Government made it clear that there are fiscal limitations on how fast the Corrections Service will be able to develop more suitable housing for babies and mothers, both in terms of babies staying until they are up to two years or even two years and three months old, and in regards to the way in which different classifications of prisoner are required to be kept separate from each other.

It is for this reason that the Green Party accepted the Minister’s SOP during the Committee stages that means this Bill will only be applied as and how facilities are developed – but I have also accepted the Minister’s assurance that money will be invested immediately in beginning to make this happen.

Because of the substantial cross party support for this Bill it is my sincere hope that whichever combination of parties forms the next government, this commitment will continue, and grow to allowing more and more mothers, where possible, to keep their babies with them.

I realised that with a Private Members Bill like this it would not be realistic to expect a huge budget allocation in the first instance, given the pressures on government budgets in general and on Corrections in particular – but at the same time without any financial commitment the Bill would be near to meaningless, and I offer a hearty thanks to Minister Phil Goff for his understanding and support for what is being attempted here.

I would also like, before going any further, to extend thanks to all parties in this House who have supported the Bill right through from beginning to end. I think this support is a tribute to the compassion of the MPs and parties concerned, and to your understanding that this Bill is above all about the welfare of babies whose need and right to bond with their mother from birth, if at all possible, should be paramount in our thinking.

I would further like to acknowledge my fellow MPs on the Law and Order Select Committee which dealt with this Bill, not a crew with whom I normally work. Thanks to all of you, but particularly to Martin Gallagher from Labour who chaired the committee and to Simon Power from National who proved to be an astute voice and sounding board for many of the issues arising from our consideration.

Thanks too, to the Select Committee staff and government officials who helped with all the backroom work on the Bill, and similarly a big thank you to all the submitters. We had 58 submissions in all, quite a large number given the small size of the Bill, the lack of controversy around it and the fact that it only deals with a tiny segment of the population.

However, in remarking that this Bill was not particularly controversial is not to say that it doesn’t have its critics. I was particularly struck by submissions from some who said we shouldn’t have any mothers with babies in prison at all. I agree with them, but unfortunately the Green Party has not so far been in a position to champion things like the piloting of habilitation or community justice centres outside prison walls, much less many other much needed reforms to our corrections and justice systems.

I see the measure we’re taking today as just one stage on a much longer journey towards the progressive reform of our prison system, and would once again like to acknowledge all those who have helped us take this small - but critical - step forward.