COMMUNITY PROTECTION PANEL

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:06): Can the Attorney-General provide details of how much of the $5.6 million allocated to the Community Protection Panel has been spent and on what it has been spent?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:06): I am pleased to get that information for the member for Bragg, but remember this: in light of the criminal rampage that has been occurring in South Australia, all the parliamentary Liberal Party can say is, 'Spend more money on rehabilitation.' Something like $11.5 million over four years has been allocated by the Rann government—new money—to deal with this gang and I will be happy to get the outcomes of that expenditure for the member for Bragg, but the only response we get from the parliamentary Liberal Party is like we get from the member—

Mr WILLIAMS: I rise on a point of order. The Attorney-General is not responsible to this house for the Liberal Party—thank God!

The SPEAKER: The Attorney-General.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: The policy of this government is that there are some offenders who are part of the Gang of 49 who may have been susceptible to rehabilitation when they were much younger and may again in the future be amenable to rehabilitation but are not currently amenable to rehabilitation. If I can use the words of Carole King in the Tapestry album, 'You can't argue with a man with a shotgun in his hand.' That is why we want to send those people into youth detention or to prison and the Leader of the Opposition does not.