Grievance Debate

CAVAN TRAINING CENTRE

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:16): Last night, eight young offenders escaped from the Cavan high security juvenile training centre, and subsequently there was an overnight manhunt. We are glad that South Australian police have done an excellent job in apprehending seven of those eight young offenders; one remains at large. The government's response has been disappointing to say the very least. It has been unable or unwilling to provide clarity to the South Australian public about the circumstances relating to the escape last night.

I note that the Minister for Police has just tabled a ministerial statement made in another place. I assume that it is the one made part way through question time in the Legislative Council by minister Hunter, in which he laid on the table some of the incident's details, but by no means all of them. It certainly would have been helpful for that material to have been provided before question time, perhaps, given that the Premier answered four questions on the issue.

It certainly would have been helpful to the Premier, given that some of the answers that he provided were weak and confused to say the least. For example, the first question that arose out of this situation was the issue of whether or not there has been overcrowding at Cavan. This has been confusing all day for the government. We heard minister Hunter say on the radio this morning that capacity at Cavan is about 42. These are the most secure cells for young offenders in South Australia.

These are the people who commit serious youth offences, and the minister thinks there are about 42. There are actually 36, which did come out at one stage during the Premier's answer but, as to the number of people actually in the cells last night when the breakout happened, first we heard 29, then there was a suggestion this morning that it might have been 25, and, finally, the Premier came back halfway through question time and said, 'Oh, it turns out it's 35.'

So, we know that there were 35 of the 36 beds taken; if maybe not over-capacity, we are certainly looking at a very full Cavan, and that is part of the reason that the juvenile justice system is seeing many people transferred from Magill to Cavan—because Magill is straining at its edges. This has been a long story, of course, because in 2000 the Liberal Party announced that Magill would be replaced with a new facility at Cavan.

The Premier did two things: first, he suggested that this had nothing to do with the breakout last night, but to do that suggests that there is absolutely no connection between juvenile justice policy, the offenders at Magill and the offenders at Cavan. We are talking about one body of offenders, and they move the ones requiring the most secure facility from Magill to Cavan. We know, for example, from the very limited information that the Premier and the minister have been able to release, that two of the offenders who broke out last night at Cavan were involved in the riot at Magill last year, so there are two who were moved from Magill to Cavan because security and the system at Magill were not up to scratch.

If the government had proceeded with the Liberal plan that was in the 2002 budget papers until it was knocked off by this government, we would have better secure care facilities at Cavan for both the new facility and the old facility, and we would not be in such trouble. The Premier went on to say that the Liberal government had never budgeted for this matter. As a former minister for families and communities, he should know better.

I draw to his attention the Capital Works Statement of the 1999-2000 budget, page 27, that talks about, look, the replacement of Magill and the redevelopment of Cavan Training Centre, construction of a new facility to replace the outdated and inefficient Magill Training Centre and works to extend the capacity and infrastructure of the Cavan Training Centre. There are media releases from Dean Brown, there are Advertiser stories at the time suggesting it will cost $19 million, and there is money allocated in that budget paper to get the work underway.

Further, at the time, in The Advertiser article of 4 September 2000, Salisbury mayor, Tony Zappia, who is, I believe, now a Labor member of the federal parliament, said the government had agreed to pay the council $350,000 to spend building Goldsborough Road, and that would enable the construction of the centre to take place.

The Labor government is dreadfully confused on this issue, and it is a very important issue. As the Governor said in his speech to open the parliament, public safety—community safety—is a primary responsibility and a primary duty of government. Last night's escape of the eight detainees is a fundamental failure by the government to commit that duty of care to the South Australian public. It is a severe community safety problem.

We have had no reasonable explanation of the details and the facts from the government. That has been lacking. They need to come clean and they need to answer the questions that are being put to them. They need to explain clearly how on earth it is possible that eight young inmates were able to escape, and we are told by the Minister for Social Inclusion that it was by cutting a way through the fence.

Time expired.