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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2903 ..

Debate resumed from 7 May 1997, on motion by Mr Stefaniak:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR OSBORNE: I wish to inform the Assembly, pursuant to standing order 246A, that on 3 September 1997 the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs resolved to inform the Assembly of its consideration of the matter of the construction of a correctional facility in the ACT. I also wish to make a statement on behalf of the committee. I was interested to open the Canberra Times yesterday morning and see a great deal of what I was supposed to say today published there. I am sure that that will be dealt with at some stage. The statement that I am making today deals with the issue of whether the ACT should build its own correctional facility to house Territory remandees and prisoners.

This issue concerned the three members of the Legal Affairs Committee, who brought various perspectives to the issue. In one of my previous careers - that as a New South Wales police officer - I visited the Goulburn and Long Bay correctional facilities. I ceased that employment back in 1991 and have come to realise that correctional facilities have changed greatly since that time. My colleague Mr Hird worked as a New South Wales policeman during the early 1960s. During this time he visited the Goulburn, Long Bay and Penrith correctional facilities on a number of occasions. Again, he found it useful to update his knowledge of this issue. My other colleague on the committee, Mr Wood, is the shadow Attorney-General. I think it is true that he had never visited a correctional facility before the committee examined this matter. I see him nodding in agreement.

The committee has taken careful note of the Government's discussion paper released in the Assembly last year and entitled "The possible establishment of a correctional facility in the Australian Capital Territory". The key question raised in the discussion paper was whether the ACT should build a prison or continue existing arrangements by contracting this service to the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services. The discussion paper went on to ask nine subsidiary questions. One, should the ACT have a full-time correctional facility? Two, if so, what categories of offenders should be accommodated? Three, what should be the goals of an ACT correctional facility and how should these goals be achieved? Four, how should a correctional facility be managed?

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