Page 3906 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 29 October 2013
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Mr Hanson: “Yes” is the answer, Shane, if you need a hint.
MR RATTENBURY: I believe that Mr Hanson has the answer, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: With the AMC having 343 prisoners last week, and given the Treasury advice of 2003, why did you say last week that this was an “unpredictable scenario”?
MR RATTENBURY: I am glad Mrs Jones asked that question because it gives me a chance to respond to the preposterous comments that Mr Hanson made last week where he attempted to twist the words that I had provided in my ministerial statement.
Mr Smyth: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
MR RATTENBURY: So tender.
MADAM SPEAKER: On the point of order.
Mr Smyth: It is about the standing orders. He was asked a question; he has flagged that he is going to ignore the question and refer to last week’s debate instead of answering the question.
MR RATTENBURY: Far from it; I am coming straight to it.
MADAM SPEAKER: I notice that Mr Rattenbury referred to comments, but he has not yet indicated that he is not going to answer Mrs Jones’s question, and I am prepared to give him a little leeway.
MR RATTENBURY: I am coming exactly to it. I was just providing the appropriate frame. The observation I made last week was that the population had grown from 240 to 340ish, depending on the exact timing, and that that was an unprecedented and unexpected increase in the time frame available. To see that from January this year to September-October this year—I do not think anybody would have expected that sort of population increase in that time frame. That is the observation I was making last week.
There is a whole other discussion—and no doubt we are going to prosecute this at some length tomorrow in the debate on Mr Hanson’s motion—about the various population projections and the various views that people put on population projections. There are, as we will discuss tomorrow, a range of views on what the populations would be this time. My observation was simply about the change between January this year and September this year.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Minister, how is the management able to roster around the movement in numbers at the AMC?
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