Page 3091 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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I was somewhat disturbed during the estimates hearings to hear that this money that had been pledged by the government for this initiative, which the opposition did not support because we thought that this was not an appropriate use of the money and that it could be better spent elsewhere, is now having to be found out of the police budget. So $300,000 is going to be taken out of front-line services and put into running those consultative committees. It was not made clear to us exactly what services are going to have to be cut elsewhere—because you cannot just find $300,000 magically to fund a program like this. It is going to have an impact on the service, and we still do not know where that is.
Another line item in the budget is that of the Gungahlin police station, the 24-hour service that is going to be run there. This has been opened with great fanfare and it is worth noting to the Assembly that this has actually been reopened; that this is a government that closed that service, very quietly, and then reopened it with great fanfare. It is worth noting that fact to the Assembly.
It is difficult when you look through the budget to find out what is going on with police. We do not get the strategic indicators that you do across a number of other line items. So recommendations 108 and 109 of the estimates committee call for greater clarity in what is actually happening in that department and in the portfolio and we really do not know what it is.
On the issue of crime statistics in the ACT, there was a report tabled today and I note that over the last couple of years there is a significant increase in some categories, but I would like to turn specifically to drink-driving because that was discussed in some detail in the estimates committee. There is a real problem with drink-driving in the ACT, and this government’s response was to name and shame. That was a policy that seemed to be cooked up, ad hoc. There is no strategy to deal with this problem. This is not new; these rates have been increasing over the last three or four years and this government has failed to deliver to the people of Canberra a strategy to deal with such an important issue.
I would like now to turn to the issue of corrections. It has been anything but an incident-free portfolio this one. It is costing us now $24 million a year to run the jail. It is a portfolio area that is just going up and up and up. Indeed, since 2005 in real terms we have had a $30 million increase in the amount that it has cost us to run our corrective services. If you have a look at the number of clients, prisoners, detainees and so on, since 2005 we have had a marginal increase in the number of prisoners but we are paying $13 million, so it is $13 million for 25 detainees. I will just quote what Minister Hargreaves had to say—
Mr Hargreaves: These are wise words coming.
MR HANSON: I will not now; I cannot bring myself to do it. It is so incoherent. I have got another one from you later on that is even worse.
What we have got now is a jail that is costing $24 million but it is only half full. So I have been calling for some time—
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