Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been forced to clarify his government's new prison beds announcement after a chaotic and confusing press conference.
Luxon and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell held a media stand-up on Monday to provide details about their $1.9 billion plan to improve prisons.
But instead of giving details, the MPs repeatedly provided incorrect information and contradicted each other. The confusion mostly centred around the number of beds the government will be delivering at Waikeria prison.
Both claimed they were delivering 810 new beds but when asked whether that included the 600 beds already funded and announced by Labour, Luxon nodded while Mitchell said 'no'.
Mitchell said in addition to the 600 already announced, this government was delivering 220. He then corrected 220 to 210.
Reporters then questioned whether the government was really only delivering 210 new beds then both Luxon and Mitchell said 'no'. They then again said in total 810 new beds would be delivered leaving reporters baffled over whether that did or did not include Labour's 600.
Things went from bad to worse for Mitchell who then said, "Waikeria hasn't been delivered, Waikeria will be delivered in the middle of next year".
However, reporters pointed out Waikeria does in fact already exist and currently has capacity for 455 prisoners. Labour's 600 beds will be part of a separate facility at the same site.
Speaking with AM's Lloyd Burr on Tuesday, the Prime Minister conceded they got "a bit mixed up".
Luxon initially clarified the announcement confirming in total there will be around 1800 beds at Waikeria.
"There are 455 beds there currently. There are 600 beds that will be added next year and there's a further 810 beds in the announcement yesterday, which means that you will end up with Waikeria with capacity for over 1800 beds in total once we finish that development," Luxon told Burr.
"What's exciting about that development is that it's $1.9 billion being spent on corrections and that is really to make sure that we get more corrections officers and to make sure that we can pay them well with pay increases...do the expansion but also importantly spend almost $80 million rehabilitating remand prisoners and making sure they get access to rehabilitation services much earlier than they would. So it's a really good package for us to actually be making sure we're doing our part in restoring law and order."
Burr then pointed out that was a clear explanation and questioned what went wrong on Monday.
"Look we got a bit mixed up yesterday. We had a quick chat after the press conference and Mark clarified it very, very quickly.
"We've actually got good clarity over what's going on there," he added.
"What's important here is that we are wanting to restore law and order," Luxon said, pivoting to the other work his government is doing in the area.
The Prime Minister also hit back at Burr's suggestion the press conference looked like the "wheels were coming off the bus".
"Absolutely not. [We] just got a bit mixed up in the moment but clarified very quickly, and importantly what we are doing is working very hard to restore law and order in New Zealand."
