Police Cells

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Now that the minister has had 24 hours to read the comments of the police commissioner and given the comments this morning by Corrections CEO, David Brown, that the use of surge beds have an impact on police operations, does the minister stand by his statement in question time yesterday and I quote, '…our current use of surge beds is not having a negative impact on their operations'?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:19): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. My answer would be the same: nothing was said by the CEO of Corrections this morning on radio which would indicate that is incorrect, as he indicated that we have a number of surge beds allocated to us in a number of cells and, certainly, we use them and we use them on a regular basis. At this point in time—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: That's correct—we will do our best to make sure that we keep within that. Having said that, I am confident that both SAPOL and Corrections will meet the orders of any court should they insist that we house somebody.