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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3489 ..
MR HARGREAVES (continuing):
contract. I do not think that it is acceptable just to whack it in as a clause of the contract for the work. I think it is necessary to bring forward legislation. If this Government does not do so in a wee while, I will bring it forward in private members business.
I think it is worth while recording what the Auditor-General of Victoria said about the private model. This Government has said, "The private model can give you more innovative programs. That is wonderful. We will go with it". We had a look around the countryside and found that it was true that the private sector's entree into the market had jacked up the high-jump bar in the way of standards - spot on - but what has happened since is that a lot of the public sector ones have risen to the challenge and are now introducing some innovative programs that are really crash hot, so that idea is a bit out-of-date. The Victorian Auditor-General said that some provisions currently work against the delivery of high-quality services within a competitive environment. We need to be particularly careful that that does not happen in the ACT.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the one thing that the committee was absolutely agreed on - I know you, sir, were absolutely in favour of this particular recommendation - is that whatever system was managing the prison there would be a government on-site manager located within the fair walls of that prison.
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Similar to the South Australian model.
MR HARGREAVES: Indeed. If that was done more by luck than judgment, so be it; it is wonderful. We need to make sure that that is so. We need to make sure that the community accepts responsibility for its prisoners and that these people who are in gaol still feel part of the community when they are under punishment. However, if we do go private, the only way that we can make sure that we maintain our responsibility is by having that on-site monitor.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I conclude by saying that I think that this report is a brilliant report. It give us a good indication of where to go next and it encourages the Government to get on with it and do the thing properly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Wood ) adjourned.
MR SMYTH
(Minister for Urban Services) (4.51): Just before lunchtime, when Ms Tucker was speaking on the labelling of egg cartons, she referred to something that Mr Moore said. The comment was that this was not about guilt but about information. This morning, we heard Mr Berry talking about people with views different to his. He has often mentioned that he does not agree with us but he is almost saying that we do not have the right to have a view. All we seek to do here is establish more information.
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