They’re trying to build a prison/for you & me to live in

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, September 21st, 2012 - 16 comments
Categories: capitalism, jobs, prisons - Tags:

National is celebrating the creation of 1300 jobs (only 300 permanent) with a prison.

How many more prisons would they have to build to reverse the increase in unemployment under their watch and create 65,000 permanent jobs?

Only 217.

And you know what the anthem to that version of Planet Key would be, eh?

It’s kind of ironic, when you think about it. The Nats are constantly trying to weasel out of their promise to create 170,000 jobs by saying that the private sector, not the Government creates jobs …. and the only job creation they can trumpet – a prison paid for by the government.

For that matter, the next biggest sources of new employment in the country are also the Government – public sector rebuild in Christchurch, and those bloody roads to nowhere.

The common theme to this, apart from the age old truth that it is government, not the private sector that creates big employment opportunities, is that the Government’s big employment schemes are not creating anything new and valuable – a for-profit prison when we already have too many beds and prisoner numbers are falling, replacing what we lost in Christchurch with a half-arsed rebuild (OK, most of the work has to be done in that case, but a huge opportunity is being lost), and spending $12 billion increasing our addiction to imported oil.

16 comments on “They’re trying to build a prison/for you & me to live in ”

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  1. Carol 1
    21 September 2012 at 8:59 am

    And according to the Labour Party MP Charles Chauvel, that dodgy company Serco is going to make a hearty profit from the prison, even before it starts taking inmates:

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1209/S00323/sod-that-tolley-needs-to-come-clean.htm

    “Serco told the London Stock Exchange earlier this month that it expected revenues of £15 million (NZ$29 million) per annum from the operation of the prison, and £2 million from the period before the prison even opens. The LSE has more information than the New Zealand public about what the taxpayer will pay under the arrangement.

    Less tax payer money for beneficiaries, more for the corporates.

  2. Crashcart 2
    21 September 2012 at 9:04 am

    It’s easy to turn a profit when you can get a 25 year contract that pays you for 100% occupancy irrespective of the number of prisoners you actually manage. These Nats drive a hard bargin when negotiating with their rich foreign mates don’t they.

  3. marsman 3
    21 September 2012 at 9:19 am

    More money down the corporate drain. When it was suggested to Anne Tolley that the for profit prison would possibly house the people who fall foul of Paula Bennett’s draconian welfare changes she said ‘That is just silly’, silly Tolley. And no, we are not allowed to know how much we the taxpayer will have to pay to break the contract with Serco.

  4. weka 4
    21 September 2012 at 9:21 am

    Hey, it works for the US. What NACT need is a decent war on drugs. That’d lower the unemployment numbers and create new prison jobs at the same time! They could even match up the prison jobs with all the people in NZ who hate beneficiaries. 

  5. Jokerman 5
    21 September 2012 at 9:31 am

    that caring Workman chappie identified to the Media yesterday how the current prison bed surplus is highly likely to be filled (and some) as One outcome of current welfare re-form

  6. Maui 6
    21 September 2012 at 9:56 am

    Simple. Knock down the monstrosity that is Mt. Eden and replace it with an airy modern containment facility for those about to be pinged as welfare dodgers.

    The prisoners can be parked at White Island, or somewhere natural attrition will take its toll. It could become an Aotearoan “Devil’s Island”, a former penal colony in French Guiana. A number of offshore volcanic formations could be suitable for this role.

    It worries me that they may take this seriously.

    • bbfloyd 6.1
      21 September 2012 at 1:46 pm

      I assume you remember that devils island was mainly for political prisoners…..very apt comparison….And wasn’t it rotoroa that had the facility for alcoholics? could be a do up for a few hundred of the hardest women prisoners…And close enough to waiheke for the inmates to be used as cheap domestics for the new yuppie population currently infecting the island.

      Mokohinau islands, or Cuvier island would be suitably far off the coast to make it hard to raft it to the mainland….everyone south of the Mt Wellington border go there…

      It would keep the navy busy too, rounding them up…. Good reason to spend some money on a couple more kitset warships….

  7. Glg 7
    21 September 2012 at 10:06 am

    Servo run their businesses like National run their government. Don’t bother with the facts, look at this pretty report. Oh, and look how much money I made.

    • mike e 7.1
      21 September 2012 at 10:47 am

      The UK is finding that all these PPP’s are ending up costing the taxpayer a lot more than they bargained for by 2020 the cost overruns to the UK are estimated to be 320 billion pounds a year !
      Where are the promised savings no where to be found!

      • brybry 7.1.1
        21 September 2012 at 11:11 am

        …which is a no-brainer really, because a corporation will only ever enter into arrangements like these if they can smell profit. Every single government policy is about the transfer of public money to private hands.

        • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1.1
          21 September 2012 at 1:32 pm

          because a corporation will only ever enter into arrangements like these if they can smell profit.

          And a government contract is guaranteed profit.

      • bbfloyd 7.1.2
        21 September 2012 at 1:58 pm

        The “promised savings” are to be found in the investment portfolios of the heads of these ppp’s…It”s the “poor tax” idea Bill English got from his monopoly set…. Works rather efficiently, don’t you think?

        We the poor pay tax to the rich so that they can trickle down on us in a more “relaxed” manner…

  9. DotToDot 9
    21 September 2012 at 5:37 pm

    Chauvel (like the rest of the Labour Caucus) seems to carefully avoid taking a position on PPP’s in general, restricting himself to private prisons. Why?