Page 2293 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013

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MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Seselja.

MR SESELJA: Minister, what are the medium-term accommodation requirements and how long will this new accommodation meet demand?

MR RATTENBURY: The funding provided in the budget is for two stages of designs—a 30-bed accommodation and then a subsequent 80-bed accommodation. The basis of the advice that I have is that that will provide us with the accommodation capacity that we need for the foreseeable future.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.

MR DOSZPOT: Minister, given the original facility was delivered over budget, how can we now be confident that the new facilities will be delivered on budget?

MR RATTENBURY: The budget bid that went forward and the money that has been allocated as part of the budget is for $3 million. That has been allocated for design work for the provision of additional accommodation options. I am confident that those design works will be delivered for that $3 million budget allocation.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.

MR DOSZPOT: Minister, how does a jail at or near capacity impact on the ability for it to operate as a human rights compliant jail?

MR RATTENBURY: I think the first thing to observe in response to Mr Doszpot’s question is that the population does fluctuate quite a bit. Certainly in the time that I have been minister, the numbers have gone up and down quite substantially. There is a range of factors that relate to that.

In terms of the human rights compliance, I think this is part of the issue I have raised—that having greater flexibility around separation issues in particular ensures that we can maximise meeting the goal that the government has of having a human rights compliant prison. Having that flexibility will ensure that we are not mixing those detainees that perhaps have the potential for conflict, which minimises the potential for dangerous incidents, assaults and that sort of thing. It also maximises the capability for detainees to access programs within the centre. This is about continuing to strive to have the highest possible standards we can within a correctional facility.

National Multicultural Festival—funding

MRS JONES: Madam Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. During the 2012 election campaign, Labor promised additional funding to the Multicultural Festival of $100,000 each in 2013-14 and 2014-15, increasing to $110,000 extra in 2014-15 and 2015-16. However, in the budget papers there is only funding allocated for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 years, and there are zero dollars allocated for this extra funding in the outyears of 2015-16 and 2016-17. Why is the promised funding not delivered in the budget papers?


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