Page 2885 - Week 10 - Thursday, 7 October 2021
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MS CHEYNE: I somewhat reject the premise of that question. This is a significant investment and it responds to the community’s feedback that not only do we not have enough public art in the ACT which reflects women or non-binary persons as the subject but also not enough public art created by women or non-binary persons.
The price of public art can absolutely depend on the type of the artwork, and it ranges in the ACT. I can take on notice what the average is, but I truly do not think there is a lot of value in talking about what the average is, particularly noting that public art is funded depending on the size but also the time in history. Therefore, what we paid for a piece of public art some time ago may not be what we would be paying for it today. So I am not sure I will take that bit on notice, because I am not convinced of the value in doing so.
Mrs Jones: On a point of clarification, did the minister take that on notice or not? Can we have that clarified?
MS CHEYNE: No.
Budget—Alexander Maconochie Centre
MRS KIKKERT: My question is to the Minister for Corrections. Minister, in the last budget, $34 million was allocated for the creation of a reintegration centre for the AMC, an additional $97,000 was put aside for design and planning, and there was $1.7 million for soil rectification. In March 2021 the centre was put on hold. This year a line item titled “reintegration pathways” is offset to a total of negative $39 million. Minister, why was the reintegration centre put on hold, and does the offset mean that the money has been allocated to something else? Where has the capital investment gone?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mrs Kikkert for the question. The corrections budget items invest in improved reintegration and wellbeing initiatives to enhance services and support available to detainees at the AMC. They also fund the facilitation of critical repairs and improvements to AMC following some storm damage. It will of course involve furthering work to optimise the utilisation of the existing transitional release centre, and consolidating the work being done to modernise and improve programs and services available to detainees—building better pathways for those leaving the AMC as well.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, is the actual construction of the reintegration centre building being funded for this year, next year or the year after that?
MR GENTLEMAN: It is on hold at the moment. We are looking at whether to go forward with the extra work at the integration centre or seek some other, better opportunities for detainees.
MR HANSON: Minister, why have you scrapped this investment into justice reinvestment so soon after announcing it?
MR GENTLEMAN: It has not been scrapped.
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