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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (18 April) . . Page.. 1082 ..


Mr Berry: All you are interested in is shooting the kangaroos and sucking up to the rural lessees who will shoot anything that moves.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR HUMPHRIES: Far from jumping the gun, I have done what I was urged to do last October, which is to implement faithfully what is in that report. Mr Speaker, if those opposite do not like that, if they do not like what the Kangaroo Advisory Committee has recommended, they have two problems to face. First of all, they have already told me that I will have to follow the committee's recommendations. Secondly, this is a committee consisting of experts, the best Australian experts that could be found on the question of kangaroo management. They are the best possible people.

Mr Berry: Does Jacqui Rees agree with you?

MR HUMPHRIES: Perhaps not. Perhaps Jacqui Rees did not agree with that management report; I do not know.

Mr Berry: Is she on the committee?

Mr Stefaniak: She did not agree with Mr Wood either.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Humphries is answering Mr Hird's question, not all the interjectors.

MR HUMPHRIES: I suggest that Mr Berry turn and ask Mr Wood what he thinks of that proposition. I am sure that he would have a ready answer to that proposition. Mr Speaker, I think this is a sensible, balanced report. I have now taken that advice and I will implement the recommendations of that committee.

Belconnen Remand Centre

MS FOLLETT: I direct a question without notice to Mr Humphries in his capacity as Attorney-General. I refer Mr Humphries again to the minute from ACT Corrective Services which I tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday and which outlines the steps that staff at the Belconnen Remand Centre are taking in order to meet their budget bottom line - the sacred bottom line. There is a statement in that minute, Minister, which says that "jobs which are available to detainees to earn money will be reviewed and rationalised". How many detainees have lost their jobs as a result of that directive? How many of the detainees who have lost their jobs were also reliant on the now cancelled free issue?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, first of all, Ms Follett has asked a very detailed question which I will have to take at least partly on notice. I think it is a bit unfortunate that she chooses to ask that sort of question without giving me advance notice or putting it on notice. The Belconnen Remand Centre operates on the basis that there will be a number of jobs available to inmates at the centre to ensure that they are able to purchase


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