Page 5839 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 2010

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MR CORBELL: Again I refer the member to my previous answer.

MS BRESNAN: Supplementary, Mr Speaker?

MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan.

MS BRESNAN: Minister, will moving the therapeutic community which currently takes up one of the cottages to a fenced area in the remandees area have an impact on prison numbers?

MR CORBELL: It will not have an impact on prisoner numbers. It may have an impact on the number of beds that are available to be utilised and that is a matter that is currently being investigated. Certainly the organisation that runs the therapeutic community in coordination with Corrective Services, ADFACT, has made representations to me arguing that the therapeutic community should be relocated from its current location in one of the cottages adjacent to the sentence cell block to another cottage further away from the sentence cell block.

I am sympathetic to those requests and Corrective Services are looking at whether it is possible to realign the mix of prisoners in that accommodation to achieve that. But no decision has yet been made in relation to that, although options are being considered.

MR HANSON: Supplementary, Mr Speaker?

MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hanson.

MR HANSON: Minister, at estimates hearings in 2007 you said:

The projected planning for the prison in terms of population gives us real capacity to accommodate growth into the future and certainly gives us a facility in terms of its current bedding configuration, as currently being constructed—not its potential but its current bedding configuration—to meet our needs over the next 25 years or so.

Minister, was that statement true?

MR CORBELL: Yes.

Community services

MS PORTER: My question is to the Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services. Could the minister inform the Assembly about the progress of the regional community facilities project and the benefits it will provide to the community?

MS BURCH: I thank Ms Porter for her question. The ACT government is committed to building a better city and a stronger community. That is why the government has invested $27.25 million to undertake work at nine former school sites and two greenfield sites, known as the regional community facilities project.


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