Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4748 ..

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I take your wise counsel, and I will be careful in the morning. Then we get to talk of rehabilitation, and that is all that is going on with the government. Rehabilitation equals talk. It is a new word. When you talk about rehabilitation, they are just words.

We have got a bill before this place. We have been out consulting, and there is a roundtable next week. I hope to bring it on the week after next. It is a toolkit that says everything from "You can let them off"to "You can jail them". But you have to set in place programs to assist them to break the cycle of crime. We have got the full kit here, and we are very proud of it.

On the prison we have announcement after announcement. Prisons are a vital part of sentencing. I understand that we have custodial sentencing at about half the national rate, and the judges often say it is because they have got nowhere appropriate to send those that they would normally send to jail. We got to a position-after much consultation, a standing committee report, talk with the community and a site selection process. It took a long time, but we came up with a site. The site was clearly unacceptable, given the outcome of the last election. These people have had two years and have done nothing.

You have to have the full gamut to make rehabilitation work. We should, as a society, be working on prevention. We should be taking into account education, health, housing and all those indicators that we know so well. People must often listen to us in this place and think, "You talk the talk, but none of you are walking the walk."

We believe in prevention; we put it in our budget. We had early intervention programs. We believe in supporting policing; we did that through money for equipment and vehicles and by providing the legislation to allow policemen and women to do their job and do it properly. We believe in appropriate and consistent sentencing, not sentencing that is all over the shop, depending on where you come from.

We believe in rehabilitation, and our rehabilitation commitment is on the notice paper. I challenge the Chief Minister to show me where his is. It is not there, because they have not done the work. We believe that we should have a prison and that we as a society should take care of our own. Hopefully, we would keep the prison fairly empty, but it should be there as a reminder to some that that is where they may end up. It may force some to regret their stay there and force them not to want to go back.

If we get the balance right, we can make sure that it improves the lifestyle of all Canberrans. We can improve the lifestyle of those caught up in criminal activity. We can make a difference, if we get the balance right. But we have to have the full suite of tools, there on the table, so that they work. That is what Mr Stefaniak seeks to do today.

MRS CROSS (9.16): I am not going to reiterate the comments of other members of this place on this bill, but I do want to comment, Mr Speaker, on the extraordinary remarks made by Mr Cornwell. I seem to remember about a year ago in this place, as a new crossbench member, and in fact relatively new to this Assembly, that I had a concern over a judgment that you had made about an issue. I questioned that judgment. I felt that it was my right to do that.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .