Ministerial Statement

MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:02): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The global financial crisis made a significant impact on the state's revenues to the point where, in the last state budget, the government was forced to make some very, very hard decisions. One of those decisions was to cancel the $600 million prisons' project (a public-private partnership project), which included a new high security prison at Murray Bridge and a new 90 bed facility to replace the Magill and Cavan youth training centres.

This new youth detention facility was to have been operating from 1 July 2011. Since that time, we have been looking at a variety of options to fund a new youth training facility, as I have said repeatedly, because we were aware of and acknowledged that the current Magill Training Centre was not up to standard and needed to be replaced. In fact, since the state budget was brought down, the Minister for Families and Communities and I have repeatedly said that we would replace the old Magill facility as soon as it was financially responsible and possible to do so.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I will not have my calls for order ignored.

Mr Pisoni: You are so transparent!

The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the member for Unley.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I am delighted to inform the house today that cabinet has approved a new option to replace the Magill Training Centre, and we will go ahead with it despite opposition from the opposition. We will build—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We will—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I find an ethnic slur from the other side of the house deeply offensive. We will build a new $67 million, 60 bed secure youth justice facility to be constructed on a 7.7 hectare greenfield site at Goldsborough Road, Cavan, with room to expand if necessary, subject of course to future budget considerations. We expect this new facility will open in the second half of 2011.

Rather than close both the 46 room Magill Youth Training Centre and the 36 bed Cavan Training Centre, we will immediately spend $4 million to upgrade both these centres for their incumbents. Because we intend to keep the Cavan Training Centre open, it means that this new option will have 96 beds available as opposed to the 90 beds we would have had under the original plan. The facility will be funded by the sale of 15 hectares of state government land at Oakden, the future sale and development of the existing Magill site plus $5 million from contingency funds set aside in the state budget for existing correctional facilities.

The state government will now work with companies involved in the original public-private partnership before tenders are let for construction, because these consortia already have advanced plans for construction of a new centre. The Magill site and the land adjacent to the Strathmont Centre at Oakden will be sold by the Land Management Corporation.

We said we would fix it. We said that we would bowl over the Magill centre when we had the finances to do so. I know that members opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —will support the plan to provide even more beds in the best condition for those incumbent in these institutions.