Page 2771 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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MR STEFANIAK: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The government should take that fact into account. If there were a great community clamour and support for a prison—
Mr Stanhope: Whenever has a community clamoured for a prison?
MR STEFANIAK: They were pretty keen to have one in Junee and they were pretty keen to get the one back in Cooma, but I have not heard too much of it here. As I have said today, I have talked with two people who thought it was a good idea. I have talked to a swag of people over the six weeks who do not think you should have it at this point in time.
Mr Corbell: That sounds like a very scientific survey.
MR STEFANIAK: It is called listening to the community, Mr Corbell. I know you are very remote and arrogant and tend not to do that these days but, if you get out there and talk to people—
Mr Mulcahy: He is above the community.
MR STEFANIAK: He might be above the community. If you get out there and talk to people, I think you need to listen. I have gone on the record before as saying that I have always been a believer in the fact that the ACT should have a prison. But I really cannot see at this point in time any justification for going ahead with it. You have already spent a bit of money on the works there. You can stop now. It is going to be too late a few months down the track, I think. You have got yourself into this financial mess. You can put that project on hold until such time as the territory’s finances get back into a state where you can do that.
That would be what the community expects you to do, instead of going ahead with this project in such a way, it would seem, that you may not be able to put in place exactly what you want to see happen with your model prison. You might end up with a sort of half-baked prison. Surely it makes more sense at this time to say, “All right, we have a financial problem here in the territory. We have a lot of other competing demands. This is a can-have; it is not a must-have. This is something—we might not like doing it—we can put on hold. When the territory’s finances are better, we can go ahead with it.” Even though it might be highly desirable to have a prison here for 90 or 100 years, people have been going from the Australian Capital Territory to New South Wales. Whilst that might not be an ideal situation, our financial state is not in an ideal situation at present either. Accordingly, I commend the amendment to the Assembly, which would delete the appropriations for the prison from this part of the budget.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (1.06 am): I hesitate to rise because of the lateness of the hour, but the fact is that it is, I must say, regrettable that at this stage of this particular debate we are still responding to what is an unadulterated stunt by the Liberal Party on the prison—a stunt that says a lot about the Liberal Party’s attitude to issues on corrections and prisoners, the nature and status of corrections and prisoners, people who offend. It is also a complete misunderstanding of the territory’s finances.
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