Page 2770 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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confirmed in an ACT Government presentation to the Grants Commission in November 2002, entitled State of Origin of ACT Prisoners, available at … The present Executive Director of Corrective Services, James Ryan, was one of the presenters at that session and Eddie Issa attended the session …
There are serious concerns about whether an ACT prison represents value for money, given the doubts raised about the origin of our prisoners and the perilous state of the territory economy. Indeed, officials from ACT Treasury also failed to express confidence in the business case for the prison. There were some questions in estimates in relation to that as well.
Turning now to some of the questions about prisons and some of the facts, that is all the government intends to spend. I can understand that, but whether we are actually going to get the prison the government has trumpeted is another problem. There are doubts now as to exactly how much of a prison we are going to get, whether it is going to be staffed at the full level, whether there is sufficient money for the proper training of staff and how much the recurrent costs of the prison will be. I know the idea is that we spend about $10 million a year on our prisoners in New South Wales and that that will all come back to the territory.
You are going to have other costs too. You are going to have costs of professional people in the prison. You are going to have costs of extra staff. You are going to have costs of programs. From various hearings of the legal affairs committee and also at estimates, it would seem that there will be—and there has to be—an increased recurrent factor that the government is turning a blind eye to. It will be more than just the $10 million that comes back. The government’s own figures show that, just in staffing the prison there have to be about another 100 people in corrections. That would take up that $10 million. As well as that, you have the professionals and a lot of other on-costs. You would have to say there will be at least several million dollars extra a year just in recurrent costs. This is a lot of money at a time when the territory is facing a significant financial problem. It is a hell of a lot of money.
That is the reason why the opposition is moving this amendment. It would take out the moneys appropriated for this financial year in the budget for the prison. We do not do that lightly. Obviously, it is going to be defeated by the government—we realise that—but I think it is important to indicate that at this time there is very little support in the ACT community for this project to go ahead. There is very little support at a time when schools are closing, when rates, taxes and charges are going up by up to 40 per cent or more for suburban properties and even up to 60 per cent for business properties. At such a time of financial difficulty for the territory and the territory budget, to spend this amount of money on a prison, which is very much a can-have rather than a must-have, is something the government needs to take into account. It needs to take into account the views of the community. It should not proceed with it at this time.
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
MR STEFANIAK: If I may, I will take the extra 10 minutes.
MR SPEAKER: Yes.
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