Page 571 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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blowouts in the prison project through to the recent failure of the radio frequency identification system;
(2) calls on the Attorney-General to:
(a) explain the reasons why after repeatedly informing the public and the Assembly that the prisoner capacity of the AMC is 300, that the capacity has now been stated as 245;
(b) report to the Assembly by the last sitting day in March 2011 on:
(i) the costs of retro-fitting prisoner cells with bunk beds;
(ii) the Government’s latest projections on prisoner population numbers; and
(iii) the Government’s options to deal with the increase in prisoner population numbers;
(c) confirm to the Assembly by close of business today that all programs listed by the Chief Minister in the Assembly on 22 September 2010 are actually occurring at the AMC as he has stated; and
(d) apologise to the Assembly for repeatedly misleading Members with regard to operations at the AMC; and
(3) that this Assembly censures Simon Corbell MLA for mismanagement of the corrections portfolio and for repeatedly misleading the Assembly and the community with regard to operations at the AMC.
Again we are talking about the prison, but I think the prison does one singular thing: it epitomises the failure of this Labor government with regard to its incompetence, with regard to its misleads, its deception and the cover-up and with regard to the refusal by these ministers to accept responsibility.
The incompetence has been well outlined previously and I think we know the litany of failures. But since we last discussed this in the Assembly we have seen the failure of the ID system and we have seen the failure to drug test prisoners on entry to the AMC. And that is a failure that Simon Corbell described yesterday as a fundamental breakdown in administration and an intolerable breakdown in governance and procedure. But that is not the only fundamental or intolerable breakdown that has occurred under this minister. I will get to the sad litany of failures if I can, but if I do run out of time then I refer to Hansard for my motion in September 2010 for a more comprehensive view.
I want to focus today on the misleads that have occurred under this minister and the three issues: the fake opening of the prison in 2008, the lies about the capacity of the jail and what we have just seen about the drug testing. The fake opening is well documented and all the community know that the jail was not ready. It was a con; it was an election stunt. What those opposite should have said at the time was: “The jail is not ready to open. It is late. We have blown the budget. There are security faults. It is missing a gym, a chapel and sufficient beds and we will open when it is ready to
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