Page 6131 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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Attorney-General might like to respond to this. He might want to talk about his virtual district court, one of his great initiatives, or perhaps some of the extensive delays in our court system that we know occur on a daily basis.
I could certainly go to the litany in corrections, and I have done so many times in this place. If I have time, I will go through some of those. The highlight was probably the fake opening and some of the information and the evidence that we have uncovered this week. In 2007 Simon Corbell assured us—again he assured us that his statement was correct—that this was a jail that, in its current bed configuration, had capacity for 25 years. In the same breath he told us that he was retrofitting the jail with bunk beds because they have got capacity issues. I think there are very few people who drive past that prison in Hume now without a sense of exasperation about where so much of their money has gone, both in the capital works—$130 million—and on the operating cost of that jail.
Businesses are being strangled by red tape. The Business Council of Australia report made that very clear. Regarding emergency services, there was the Auditor-General’s report into ambulance services. Was that the one Mr Stanhope attacked the Auditor-General on? I think it was.
Mr Smyth: Amongst others.
MR HANSON: Amongst others. People look at this government and at its response to problems like problem gambling. They see how conflicted the Labor Party is—how this government on the one hand is trying to be moralising and preaching about gambling and, on the other hand, is taking literally millions of dollars from its own pokies. The rank hypocrisy, I think, smells. I think everybody in this community—other than those perhaps deeply affiliated with the Labor Party—would see the rank hypocrisy and would see absolute despair at how this government can on one hand pretend to moralise about gambling and, on the other hand, take the money from the pokies.
They have seen in the time of this government, just recently, a minister having to be removed as a result of his behaviour and poor performance in terms of budget blow-outs and incompetence in corrections—and, as I said, budget blow-outs in TAMS—and replaced with a minister who, I think by everybody’s standards and assessment, is not fit for the job.
Certainly, we have seen that with Bimberi and the mishandling of Bimberi. What we have seen in some of the evidence we have heard this week is a minister who is out of her depth. What we have seen in Bimberi are budget blow-outs, assaults and low staff morale, and we have seen her inept handling of that issue. “Inept” is probably the kindest word I can use.
With regard to the budget, we know that we have a strong economy—we have a very strong economy here—and we know from CommSec that the ACT was insulated from the global financial crisis. Mr Corbell will tell us that he cannot actually afford to build the chapel out at the jail because the building sector here is so overheated. So there is certainly no argument that we were hit hard by the GFC. In fact, when you look at the revenues into the ACT, it is the opposite.
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