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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2980 ..

required to report on the exercise of their statutory functions. For two committees to raise this, it is a loud and specific concern that that was not happening, and when it was happening, it was not as well as it could be. So, a lot of work has to be done there.

Through the estimates process we heard the Chief Minister’s vision for a new Supreme Court building and a new Legislative Assembly building. It is great to have vision, but where is the follow-through? When are we going to see the much-needed refurbishment of the Supreme Court building? We have just witnessed a debate about police numbers and ongoing community safety concerns. Again, the government has shown consistency in allocating far more in this budget towards prosecution than prevention, and that is extremely short-sighted. We need to keep pushing for a re-ordering of priorities so that we tackle the causes instead of the symptoms of crime. Community safety can only get better if we prevent crime being committed in the first place.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (11.26): This afternoon in question time, Mr Wood made the amazing comment: “You never added to the police budget.” It is important to get the record right because we have heard Mr Quinlan harping on all night about the rewriting of history. Let us start with the government’s rewriting of history, that when it came to office everything was bad and now everything is good.

MR SPEAKER: You will do that in the context of the question that is before the house?

MR SMYTH: I certainly will. This is about the Department of Justice and Community Safety budget, and obviously police funding is part of that. It is interesting that in 1999-2000, the budget went up 3 per cent, an additional $7 million. In 2000-2001 it went up 15 per cent, $8.2 million. In 2001-2002 it went up $3.1 million, 5 per cent. So it has gone up in the time that I have been in the Assembly and, to give it credit, the budget has gone up since this government has been in office. In 2002-2003 it went up $11 million, which is 16 per cent. In 2003-2004 it went up $4.5 million, 5 per cent. The government is predicting that in 2004-2005 it will go up another 5 per cent or $4.5 million, to bring it to $90.8 million. So, if we want to talk about the rewriting of history and the blinkered version that Mr Quinlan has been speaking about for the majority of the evening, it is easy to refute with the statistics and the old budget papers.

There is a very important line in the budget. Something I have taken an interest in is the corrections budget, and I have before the house the Corrections Reform Bill. It has been there since December because, although it has been passed in principle, we have been waiting for the Chief Minister to table his Corrections Reform Bill. I thought it might have been tabled last week. If we are lucky—given the Chief Minister’s strong commitment to corrections reform—it may be this week, so in the dying days of the Assembly perhaps we can discuss his efforts to reform corrections. I do not think we will ever see his Corrections Reform Bill. I do not think there is a commitment to it. Why not? Because, instead, the Chief Minister is welcoming the US Supreme Court ruling to hear appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. That is right, the Chief Minister is out there saving the world and neglecting his own duties.

He has been responsible for corrections for more than a year—almost a year and a half—and in that time we have seen very little real activity to progress corrections in this territory. Why? Because he neglects his responsibility to corrections. When we left office

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