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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4402 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I have an overriding concern for a cost-effective and efficient administration of the correctional centre. Frankly, whether that be a public sector operation or a private sector operation is not a decision which is at the forefront of my thinking. There is no need for a ideological debate on this question, in my view. There is absolutely no doubt, as this report says, that the public sector has become more efficient in correctional centre management in recent years. Part of that is a natural evolutionary process, but part is due to the introduction of competition. If competition creates a public sector willing to price its services accordingly, then the ACT Government would be silly not to consider this source.

A key area we can focus on in the development of this question is the area of inmate management. I say in my foreword to the report that prison philosophy in many ways has not changed much since this nation was one big prison for our then colonial masters. My view is that we have an immense opportunity here. The twenty-first century will bring about a more modern focus on correctional management. We want to focus on rehabilitating inmates, educating them and preventing them from reoffending. Regrettably, all too often people come out of prison even more hardened than when they went in. The problem with prisons is that they change so slowly. The "them and us" culture has become so entrenched in prison management that it will be difficult to witness a substantial cultural change in our lifetime. But, as I said, we do have here an opportunity to hasten that level and that degree of cultural change. We have no baseline in a sense here in the ACT which we need to deal with. We are starting in one sense from scratch. If we develop a modern custodial facility and implement management and work practices which are modern and forward thinking, there is no need for us to encounter the same problems as have been occurring in other prisons for years. This paper, Mr Speaker, raises substantial issues which the community needs to consider in an informed context. I think this discussion paper is an excellent start, and I hope that the Assembly and the wider community can have a genuine debate on this issue.

I should not conclude my remarks without referring to the comments of Ms Follett on ABC radio this morning. I want to welcome what I think is fairly described as a shift in Labor Party policy on this issue in recent times. My recollection is that for a number of years Ms Follett and Mr Connolly, her predecessor, rejected or at least put arguments against the establishment of an ACT correctional institution. There is no shame in changing policy. We have done so ourselves in the last few days on another significant issue. I hope that all parties in the Assembly will be prepared to consider change where that is appropriate. We have seen a shift in that policy on the part of the Labor Party and I hope that we can have a contribution to the debate which allows us as an Assembly to debate not just the question of whether but also a question of how and when we effect what I think is an important facility to enhance and further social justice in the Territory. It is my hope that we can bring this paper back for a considered debate in the first half of next year after perhaps some measure of public debate on the issue. I commend the paper to the Assembly for that purpose.

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