Page 960 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
they are not going to blow the budget. They have blown the budget, because they are simply getting less for $128 million. We look forward to future announcements that it is going to be for 250 or for 200. I understand they have knocked over the gym and done all sorts of things. There will be a scaling back. It may not be the most human rights complying prison in the world that was promised to us some time ago.
We know that we pay around $200 a day to New South Wales to house our prisoners. We know that we pay over $400 a day to house our prisoners in the Belconnen Remand Centre. The question that must be raised when this government are running this prison is: how are they going to keep costs down so that it is not more than the $20 million or so that we spend now on current costs? Given that we spend over $400 a day to house our remandees and we pay $200 a day to the New South Wales government, with its economies of scale and the various advantages that go with that, I do not think that anyone actually believes that we will pay no more in ongoing costs than we do now.
The issue of governance is not a sexy issue but it is an extremely important issue. There are many examples where this government, through its agencies, has failed the people of Canberra. I have identified some that are in my portfolio, and my colleagues Mr Stefaniak and Mr Mulcahy no doubt will highlight some of the other failures of governance by the ACT Labor government in the past five years.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (4.41): I will begin by responding in relation to the prison. The need for a prison is something that was agreed by the Liberal Party in government, and I have no doubt that they were to some extent motivated by the knowledge that they had in government.
Mr Stefaniak was the last minister with responsibility for corrections and perhaps the last member of the Liberal opposition to visit the Belconnen Remand Centre. The Belconnen Remand Centre is simply an unacceptable facility and must be replaced. Indeed, the Belconnen Remand Centre will represent around half of the Alexander Maconochie Centre when constructed.
It is interesting to go back to the commentary and the views and attitudes of Mr Stefaniak and his colleagues—I may be wrong; I think it was Mr Moore and not Mr Stefaniak who was responsible for corrections—as expressed by the then minister for corrections about the need to do something about the Belconnen Remand Centre. This needs to be repeated because it is a message that has been distorted by the constant misrepresentation and refusal of the Liberal Party to acknowledge that the most significant aspect, the unavoidable aspect, of the Alexander Maconochie Centre is the remand centre. To his great credit, Mr Seselja today acknowledged—and this is the first time I have heard a member of the Liberal Party do so—that half the project or a significant proportion is a replacement for the Belconnen Remand Centre.
I am sure that Mr Stefaniak, perhaps in a previous life or emanation, has visited the Belconnen Remand Centre and knows how appalling it is. It is absolutely unacceptable as an ACT government institution. It must be replaced. That is non-negotiable. You have all accepted and agreed that Quamby needed to be replaced.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .