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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (14 November) . . Page.. 3649 ..
MR SPEAKER: Sure.
MR PRATT: Thank you.
Mr Corbell: Are you going to let that go?
MR SPEAKER: No, I am not going to let it go, Mr Corbell.
MR HUMPHRIES (Leader of the Opposition): Mr Speaker, during question time the corrections minister suggested that by my saying that high-risk prisoners might go to the Symonston Remand facility I was peddling misinformation. I want to quote an extract from the hearing of the Estimates Committee earlier this year. Mr Ryan, the head of corrections was giving evidence. He said:
But it is true that, if we finished up with 70 or 80 people who are of high risk, some who are in that group may have to finish up at Symonston.
The chair then said:
You just said that you may have some people with high risk at Symonston. I-
Mr Quinlan: Can you read the build-up to that?
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I will read the whole thing. if you like. The chair, who, of course, was me, said:
Minister, with great respect, if I can butt in again, you have already made a commitment publicly about the kind of people that will be going into the facility at Symonston. You have created a strong impression in the public mind that there will be only low risk people being at that centre. Now, I put it to you that at any given time, particularly times of high pressure, there simply aren't a large enough cohort of low risk people in the system to justify that kind of transfer.
You said:
I will ask Mr Ryan to just give you a profile of what he would see as a 90 cohort.
You made various statements, and you came to that statement on exposure. Mr Ryan said:
If we finished up with 70 or 80 people who are of high risk, some who are in that group may have to finish up at Symonston.
The transcript then reads:
THE CHAIR: You just said that you may have some people with high risk at Symonston. I contrast that statement with what the minister said when he announced Symonston, which was that only people with low risk would go there.
Mr Quinlan: You had better look at exactly what I said, without trying to re-invent it-
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