Page 2598 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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Appropriation Bill 2014-2015
[Cognate bill:
Appropriation (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Bill 2014-2015
Cognate paper:
Estimates 2014-2015—Select Committee report—government response]
Detail stage
Schedule 1—Appropriations.
Consideration resumed on amendment No 13 [see schedule 1 at page 2672] moved by Mr Barr.
Justice and Community Safety Directorate—
Schedule 1A, Part 1.16—$280,070,000 (net cost of outputs), $86,432,000 (capital injection), $158,301,000 (payments on behalf of Territory), totalling $524,803,000.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (3.17): I rise to speak to Corrective Services within the line item of justice and community safety, and what a hot potato of a portfolio this has been in the past. I must congratulate Mr Rattenbury for retaining his portfolio in the recent cabinet reshuffle. This government has a long, long legacy of cutting and running from this portfolio. History reveals that Mr Quinlan, Mr Stanhope and Mr Hargreaves are past ministers responsible for this portfolio. Of current members still in this chamber Ms Burch had a crack at corrections and, in fact, Mr Corbell is a twice-sacked corrections minister, just as he is from the planning portfolio.
The litany of issues that have plagued previous corrections ministers in this place continue to plague the minister currently in charge of the portfolio—constant cost blowouts, questions over security and staffing and capacity issues. Again on the agenda is the issue of syringes in prison; once again it is back on the ideological menu of this government.
Let us look at the major cost blowouts in spending as illustrated in this year’s budget. We were told by Mr Rattenbury prior to the budget of additional facilities and upgrades at the AMC. The prison that was meant to go without any further expansion for 25 years, but it now needs $54 million for additional facilities. You would think this would be as far as it goes—the expansion of the prison that apparently did not need to be expanded—and yet this debacle just keeps on giving. Delve deeper into the fine print and the somewhat confusing budget papers and hidden in there is another $25 million towards additional facilities. To top it all off, that does not even take into account the gross amounts of money that have been spent on the design component.
This facility was supposed to have lasted for 25 years and should have been sufficient to meet the needs of the ACT community for that time. Only six years after its opening, we need to spend $54 million to upgrade it. If we find the truth—the facts Mr Rattenbury and the department and this government do not want to tell us or do not want us to find out—it is that Canberrans are going to be paying in excess of $79 million. And knowing that this hopelessly irresponsible and wasteful
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