Page 2782 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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unions issue. We are now very concerned that it might not even start with the civil unions issue, which, obviously, is the government’s priority, as it should be, because it is an important battle not only in terms of rights for gay and lesbian people, but also for the ACT government to maintain its ability to legislate.
There was discussion by the estimates committee about the amount of taxes, fees and fines owed to the ACT government and more than 128 days overdue as at 31 May 2006, a total of $21.8 million, which did not include amounts owing on rates and land tax. The estimates committee recommended that a more effective program be embarked upon to reclaim this money. I draw the attention of the Assembly to a program that I suggested earlier this year in requesting that courts be able to convert a fine to community service hours, as that would benefit the defaulter, the community and the government.
Whilst the Attorney-General agreed with the principle behind my amendments to the Sentencing Legislation Amendment Bill, he had problems with seeing it made into a reality due to what he believed our system could currently cope with. In the last financial year 50 people were imprisoned for failing to account for their fines and this year 48 people will be imprisoned. Whilst the problem is complex, I hope that the government will work over the next year towards finding a viable alternative by which fines can be converted to community service hours, because imprisonment costs us money.
The Greens support the development of an ACT prison. We recognise that ACT offenders are often housed in inhumane and counterproductive conditions within the New South Wales prison system, conditions over which we have no control. I congratulate the government on attempting to develop a human rights compliant facility and I acknowledge the need, at the very least, to replace the Belconnen Remand Centre. I am concerned about the Liberals bringing up a proposal tonight to withdraw the prison after years of public consultation, years of planning and up to, as we have heard tonight, $10 million of expenditure. It is more than anything a hollow political gesture and one that suits their constituency.
I, too, have heard people say that we should not build a prison, that we should put that money into schools and so on, but those statements are not based on the information that we have here. Therefore, I think it is mischievous even to bring that up. Also, there are all kinds of reasons that I do not think it would be cost effective. I have not heard the Liberals suggest that we withdraw the proposed expenditure of $8 million on a dragway, but there again they are really more concerned about satisfying their constituency than saving a lot of money, I believe.
In estimates I asked about the health plan for the prison. Apparently, there is a battle over funding and what corrective services will allow health services to provide on the basis of security. The health plan would be integral to the design of the prison, especially a human rights compliant one. It is important to maximise efforts to keep prisoners healthy in a mental as well as a physical sense and I was pleased to see a hopeful response by the government to the estimates committee’s report.
Issues were raised in the estimates committee hearings about the number of ACT prisoners in New South Wales prisons. I do not believe that that was adequately resolved, but I do believe that the government’s staged development of the prison, which it has explained to us, is a logical response to the issues of both numbers and dollars.
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