Page 1915 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 May 2005
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there. I note that 14 offenders have participated in the trial so far. It is early days. It seems that it might be a program that could work well. I was interested to see that victims are able to participate. I just wonder how many victims actually have participated in the 14 matters so far. That is something that we need to monitor. Also, of the 14 offenders, how often have they broken the conditions of their sentence and have they reoffended? Those are questions that we need to ask as the program is monitored. But I think that the idea is worth pursuing. It has worked elsewhere and we have no problem with that.
There are other budget low lights that I will bring to the Assembly’s attention. The government has at last acknowledged that the ACT prison, for which it allocated $110 million in the last budget, cannot possibly be built with that money, though it has repeated the mantra of $110 million again and again. The government is now adding $18.7 million, supposedly to cover the rise in construction costs that have occurred over the last couple of years. As it is being delivered over the next three years, it will not even begin to plug the hole. Construction costs have risen 40 per cent since 2001, according to the Master Builders Association. One wonders just how much further they will rise. I fully suspect that this $18.7 million will not go all that far towards meeting the real costs of constructing the prison.
But the coup de grace is that the Stanhope administration, while claiming again and again to have fully funded this prison project, has not allowed any money at all in this or any other budget for wages and operating costs. I think that is a real blunder. In fact, I hear the government has indicated that that will come out of the general government sector and unencumbered territory cash. Let’s look at that.
Mr Mulcahy: There is not much of it left.
MR STEFANIAK: Exactly. Budget paper 3, at page 103, indicates that, whilst we have $383 million in the current financial year, in the budget year we are talking about, 2005-06, it will be down to $154 million and in 2006-07 it will $24 million and in 2007-08 it will be $42 million. That is not much at all. In 2001 it was over $600 million. Is that where the money will be coming from for the extra cost of probably an additional 100 officers or so that will be needed in corrections to run the prison and all the areas of corrections that are currently being run? That is going to be at least another $10 million, and I am probably being conservative about the additional number of people needed. How is that going to be funded?
There is also, of course, the case of Quamby. Despite the minister’s promises on ABC radio on 13 April, it will not be completed now until June 2008. A month ago she was saying 2007; now it is June 2008. We also heard from the minister a while back that rebuilding would start in the middle of next year. How things change in a moment when the Stanhope administration have no idea and no hope! We will not hold our breath either concerning the feasibility study promised for next month. I note that only $3.5 million is being made available this year for the first phase of the project and we are not yet up to the first phase, which is about planning studies and design of the construction.
I noted with interest that no funding is being allocated after 30 June 2005 for the coronial inquest into the 2003 bushfires. What does this mean? Is the government predicting that
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