Page 591 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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very clear and I intend to continue that. There will be no further interjections. Chief Minister, you have the floor.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is relevant in a conversation such as this, in a debate such as this—a serious debate seeking to censure a minister—that we have regard to some of the fundamentals, to the history, to the context. This is the first time that there has been a prison in the Australian Capital Territory. It was this government that delivered it. It was this government that funded it. It was this government that determined the philosophy that would underpin the range of services and the nature of the administration or governance of the prison.
At the outset we legislated and undertook to create the first and the only corrections facility in Australia that aspired to be human rights compliant. I cannot help but think that it is this double edge, the fact that we have built a prison. The Liberal Party at one stage under Gary Humphries were supportive of the notion of constructing a prison for the ACT—
Mr Seselja: On a point of order, Mr Speaker—
MR STANHOPE: but then they went away from it.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, one moment, please. Yes, Mr Seselja?
Mr Seselja: It is on relevance, Mr Speaker. You said before that you would eventually get the Chief Minister to turn his mind to the actual motion. He is now 3½ minutes in. Perhaps now we might hear him talking about the actual motion before the Assembly.
MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. I believe the Chief Minister has referred to the motion.
MR STANHOPE: I have. It is relevant that we understand that it was us, after an initial Liberal promise, that delivered the prison, against Liberal Party objections. I remember Mr Smyth out there on the site protesting. He was protesting on the basis that it might affect the amenity of the residents of Jerrabomberra. That was actually the strength and the level of Mr Smyth’s objection—or his commitment to corrections and his commitment to a human rights compliant prison within the ACT.
They were out there demonstrating and holding up placards about: “Look, this will actually affect the views of the residents of Jerrabomberra. We shouldn’t be having a prison.” It underlies what they thought about the prison in the first instance. They have opposed it from the outset and they have continued this campaign of opposition from day one. They do not believe that we should have our own prison. They believe in transportation. They believe in a system whereby we should be shovelling our convicted prisoners off to New South Wales, to Goulburn, to Parramatta, to wherever else. They do not want them here.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Members!
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