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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2045 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

flashes. When pressed, the minister said in his response to me that these police will operate out of the stations. Well, that is not community beat policing. They do not operate out of stations; they operate out of the community.

Mr Humphries: I did not say they were operating out of stations.

MR HARGREAVES: I beg your pardon, Mr Attorney-General?

Mr Humphries: I did not say that. I did not say they were operating out of the stations.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, let the record show that the minister said that he did not say that the police would operate out of the stations. Let the record also show that I am advising him to go back and have a look at his response to me on notice for this report. That is exactly what you did say.

Mr Humphries: That was not the question you asked.

MR HARGREAVES: That is exactly what you did say. Don't try to Gary me now; it is too late in the evening. Mr Speaker, I have seen it and I do not intend to argue any further with the minister on this.

Recently, on examination, we tried to find out how we were going to put them out into the community. He changed his mind and did a backflip on that in recent times. He said that he would try to get some sort of free accommodation-there is no problem with that-but if he could not get it there would be money found from the crime prevention program. This minister has pulled money out of his slush fund to kick it along. Well, if he does, I say good, because I like the idea of the program, but let us not pontificate. Let us not hear another sanctimonious windbag in this place, Mr Speaker, come up and say that this committee report is terrible when he is actually twice as guilty himself.

Mr Speaker, I will move on. There were questions asked about the prison. The minister, when he was quizzed about the cost-benefit analysis or the cost of running private prisons and not public prisons, admitted that his department had obtained information on the costs of running private prisons but not public ones. His cost-benefit analysis purported to give us comparative figures. I quote his words. He said this:

He said, "We can't get them." When asked whether he had tried, he hedged and hedged and could not answer the questions. He said he did not know whether his department had requested the information. Mr Speaker, let me tell you how easy it is to find out. It takes one phone call. I found out, Mr Speaker, that the extension of 400 beds, which is roughly the size we are going to have to have, for the Woodford prison in Queensland is going to cost $60 million to build. I found that out by making a phone call. I also found out that the new prison in Maryborough, Queensland, which has 550 beds is going to cost $97 million.

MR SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.

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