Page 586 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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young remandee who made the allegations that he was raped by a sentenced prisoner probably does not think it is a human rights compliant prison, I would imagine.
We have the unanimous JACS report—remember that one?—that Simon Corbell said was politically motivated, even though it had Mary Porter sitting on it. But it was politically motivated.
I will go on. I intend to continue on with that in my summation but if you do not think that there have been a litany of problems at the jail and you are willing to get rid of that—and you are not naive, Ms Bresnan—you are clearly just protecting this minister.
So in the motion we have asked him to explain a number of things, including the costs of retrofitting the prisoners’ cells with bunk beds—I think that is legitimate to ask—and what the projections are for prisoner numbers. We want him to confirm by the close of business that all the other things he has told us about the jail are actually occurring. I think that is reasonable. He misled us once. Why would he not have misled us again? Has he checked? Has he gone back to corrections to make sure these things are occurring?
I have asked him to apologise. I do not think that is too much. He did actually mislead us. He has admitted to misleading us. Why could he not just apologise for that and the other misleads? He should be censured and I think that it is quite clear that he should be. I think that, in any other jurisdiction in Australia that had a minority government, the minister would be censured after his repeated misleadings, after his incompetence. And the Greens’ failure to do so, to support this Liberal motion, really makes a mockery of minority government. The Liberals do say that this is a government and a Greens party that are joined at the hip. I think it was Mr Seselja’s quote yesterday: “Meredith Hunter says jump and Jon Stanhope says”—how did you put it—
Mr Seselja: How high.
MR HANSON: “How high?” Thank you.
Mr Seselja: You were not listening.
MR HANSON: I was. I was listening. It is a good quote. But what we are seeing now is Amanda Bresnan saying jump and Simon Corbell saying, “How high?” because she wants the needles in there and Simon is the best way to get them in there. So not censuring Simon Corbell today is going to maintain that cosy relationship.
We know where it is heading, don’t we? We know where this little dance will end up, with the two of them out there saying, “Yes, we are going to bring the needles and syringes into the jail,” because you are not going to censure Simon. It is probably all part of a little deal that is done behind closed doors.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (12.13): This is about a minister who has form on this issue. This is about a minister who has previously been found guilty of persistently and wilfully misleading the Assembly on a number of issues and because he was not held to account previously and has not been held to account in this Assembly to
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