Page 1297 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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Yet again, at a time when cost-of-living pressures are hurting all people in the ACT, the ACT taxpayer is now going to have to fund these new proposals that increased accommodation be put into the AMC. And it is much more expensive to put new accommodation into a prison once it is built, particularly when we could have had that accommodation in the first place.
No, the problem is that what we have is, right from the start, a minister who is incapable of running a prison system; a minister who did not do the job; a minister who could not get the money out of cabinet; a minister who did not build what was promised. He said he lived to a budget. That was his outstanding achievement: “I’ll live to a budget.”
Now what we have got is the case, as outlined by Hamburger, where we actually do have a place that is not safe, that is not secure, that does not have appropriate segregation and that now needs increased accommodation. At the end of the day, we will read this report and we will read it in great detail, as we always do. I recall it is the government that does not read reports before they are released. But, just looking through the recommendations and looking at what has been said, the assessment is that because there have been no serious incidents it has been okay—
Mr Hanson: No disasters. There have been serious incidents but no disasters.
MR SMYTH: Sorry, that is right; no disasters—the AMC suffered a range of operational deficiencies in its first 12 months. You did not get the roster right; you did not get the accommodation right; you did not get the segregation right; you have not got it right from the start.
No doubt we will follow this up, Mr Speaker; it is an interesting report. I hope people do read it. I hope people read it all because this is an important facility for the ACT. It costs ACT taxpayers a lot of money to run every year. It has cost a lot of money to set up. Quite clearly, it is recommended that proposals be put together for more accommodation so it will continue to cost the ACT taxpayer in the future.
You have to remember this is the minister who has basically lost every portfolio that he had. He was health; he was education; he was planning—I think he has just about had them all. The problem is that the people of the ACT end up paying for Simon Corbell’s mismanagement of everything that he touches.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.00): Whilst we are still making our way through this report, I think it is worth noting—and I did not hear this in the minister’s speech—some of the really serious findings in this report. And it is worth highlighting one that I do not believe has been highlighted yet in this report. It is on page 77, finding 20. Finding 20 on page 77 says:
That until such time as AMC’s operating model, which is best practice, is functioning effectively there will be a raised level of potential risk to the safety of staff and detainees within the AMC. Insufficient general counselling services for detainees is another critical issue that has been addressed elsewhere that impacts adversely on staff and detainees’ safety …
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