Page 1647 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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Mr Hanson: Remember it was a Liberal Party initiative—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell has the floor.
MR CORBELL: That is particularly the case, Mr Speaker, when, of course, it is those opposite who are pointing the finger and saying how terrible it is. Let us contrast it with the circumstances that were left to this government to rectify—that is, an ageing and dilapidated remand centre, a human rights incompliant remand centre. They left the place with no substantive change all the time that they were in government.
Let us not forget the hypocrisy of the Liberal Party where they went to an election with a corrections minister, Mr Moore, who said there was a need to build a prison. At the end of the Carnell government, that was the policy of the Carnell government—to build a prison. That was quickly and promptly jettisoned when they realised that it might involve actually doing some hard work that was not politically favourable. We have shouldered that burden, and the result is a facility with services and facilities far in excess of that which were available at the Belconnen Remand Centre and, indeed, far in excess of those facilities available in the New South Wales prison system—that shining example of rehabilitation. Let us just put that in some context.
I will now address the range of issues that the Liberal Party have raised. First of all, Mr Hanson criticises me for refusing to accept the unanimous findings of the report of the inquiry by the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety into the commencement of operations at the AMC. Mr Speaker, let us just remind Mr Hanson—
Mr Seselja: That’s not the first thing he does. That’s a fair way down.
MR SPEAKER: Order! One moment, Mr Corbell. Stop the clocks, thank you. Members, Mr Corbell has now been speaking for 4½ minutes, and there has been near constant interjection from members of the opposition. It is not acceptable. As I said, Mr Hanson was heard in relative quiet. He was quite controversial and was not constantly interjected on, and I expect the same behaviour to be observed for Mr Corbell. Thank you. Mr Corbell.
MR CORBELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Let us not forget the one thing that Mr Hanson has omitted from his motion—that is, the finding of the independent arbitrator established under the contract for the delivery of the AMC, who has concluded that the failure to complete the AMC on time was not the fault of the government or any specification put in place by the government; it was the fault of the contractor. Where is that mentioned in Mr Hanson’s motion? It is not. It is one of those inconvenient truths that Mr Hanson does not want to draw attention to.
Of course I was going to reject that conclusion, because there was an independent process to determine who was responsible for the delay and who should pay for that delay. That process determined that it was not the government and it was the prime contractor who had failed in their responsibilities under the contract, and it had been
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