Page 4469 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, Chief Minister. I know that Mr Connolly is doing the work for Ms Follett as well. But perhaps soon enough he will be in her shoes, so it will not matter; he can do it on a permanent basis.
Mr Speaker, it is pretty outrageous of those opposite to allege that the Alliance Government's corrective services policy changes from day to day because their record in that area is not particularly good. I might ask people to cast their minds back to last year, during the election campaign, when the Liberal Party announced that it was going to explore the idea of a prison for the ACT. At that time, the spokesperson for the Labor Party, who is not in this house at this time, came forward condemning the idea of a prison in the ACT. Apparently some time after that this person was told, in no uncertain terms, that the idea was not to be condemned in that fashion because there was some merit to the proposal. That person promptly went back to the media in the ACT during the campaign and said - - -
Ms Follett: Who was this? Are you going to tell us?
MR HUMPHRIES: This was a person called Julia Ford, in case you have forgotten, Ms Follett. She was a member of your team during the election campaign.
Ms Follett: Di Ford?
MR HUMPHRIES: It was Di Ford; I beg your pardon. Having originally said that she and her party would have no truck with the prison, she then announced, in the course of the campaign, that the Labor Party would consider the idea.
Clearly, the Labor Party had been sat upon by a few people involved in the administration of justice in the Territory and told that this idea is not one that needs to be dismissed out of hand, that it needs to be seriously considered. That was the position of the ALP.
Mr Kaine: If she had said that they were going to set up a gulag she would have been totally supported.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, yes. A gulag would have been a great idea! The ALP in this town is well dominated by people who share the conviction that that kind of thing works, but that is for another debate.
The record in government, however, changed again. Once in government the ALP said that it was not going to consider a prison for the ACT at any point in the future, notwithstanding its promise during the election campaign. So, obviously, one flips and flops all over the place in the course of formulating ALP strategy or policy on corrective services, and no doubt that will continue again.
Mr Berry: What does this have to do with the budget?
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