Electoral (Prisoner Voting) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 5 June 2018.)

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (20:32): I rise to speak today to the Electoral (Prisoner Voting) Amendment Bill 2018. Through this bill, the Marshall government fulfils an election commitment to prevent prisoners who are serving a term of three years' imprisonment or longer from voting in state elections. Committing an offence that attracts a prison term of three years or longer is so serious that the consequences ought to go beyond imprisonment to forfeiting their voting rights for the duration of their sentence.

These changes bring South Australia in line with every other jurisdiction in Australia with the exception of the ACT. South Australia is currently the only state that does not impose restrictions upon prisoners' voting and it is appropriate that we fall into line with other jurisdictions. The bill provides that any prisoner, including a person on home detention, who is serving a sentence for three years or longer is ineligible to vote at state elections but it does not change the enrolment status of those prisoners. Importantly, the bill will not apply to people who are detained under the mental impairment provisions of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Once they are released from prison, they will be able to vote again.

My electorate is home to the Cadell Training Centre. The centre is a low-security prison farm accommodating male low-security prisoners. The Cadell Training Centre was opened in 1960 as a training facility for prisoners to learn vocational skills, which may not be available within other prisons, and focuses on the rehabilitation of prisoners and preparing them to take their place in the community upon release.

I have visited Cadell a number of times and it really is a credit to that community that they accept the Cadell Training Centre in its entirety. There are a number of service sectors there. Not only does the Cadell Training Centre provide great services to the local township but it also provides services to the wider communities, whether it be through growing fruit, growing eggs or milking cows. One of the great services that it provides to the local community and beyond is the Meals on Wheels preparation of food. It presents food packages to the volunteers who go into Cadell to pick them up and then distribute them far and wide.

It shows that the Cadell Training Centre is more than just a detention centre. It is a sector that provides a service, sadly, by those who have done the wrong thing and who have been brought into that detention centre. It shows that these prisoners have been brought into society for the greater good. The training centre, undertaking that great community work program, is utilising the labour within the system.

As I have said, the Cadell Training Centre supports many non-profit projects in the local community. Not only Meals on Wheels but the Cadell Country Fire Service is staffed by custodian staff, members of the public and prisoners. Over the years, the prisoners have assisted with many great community projects. For example, the Cadell Training Centre work group assisted with building the Hart Lagoon boardwalk at Ramco. These are just examples of the good outcomes that can come from people who have been through a tough time, committed sins and are now giving back to the community.

Prisoners also assisted growers in the clean-up after damaging hailstorms hit the Riverland, particularly in November 2016. I remember that the Cadell prisoners went out after a fruit fly outbreak and were cleaning up fruit off the ground that had fallen from trees. When we had this outbreak, they had to pick up fruit that contained potential larvae and potential fruit fly strike. The prisoners did a great job. They went out into the community and undertook work that maintained a reputation, particularly in the Riverland, of upholding that fruit fly free status.

It is important to note that the prison also has a focus on dairy production and packaging. As I have said, prisoners tend to citrus and olives as part of the program designed to reintegrate them into the community in the months leading up to their release. I am sure everyone here understands that when prisoners commit crimes and are put into these prisons, they have to be rehabilitated. There is an opportunity for them to be rehabilitated but it is also about the way we bring them back into society.

Cadell has some excellent programs. While they have these excellent programs, we have to understand that these people have committed the sins that have put them into this facility and that they have to actually be rehabilitated in order to come back into society. It is also my understanding that the centre has starting selling bulk milk to distributor Fallons, a famous Riverland milk brand, and started packaging and processing its own milk in 1998. I think that is an outstanding effort for what these inmates have done at Cadell.

I visited Cadell, and in the lead-up to the election I called in to the Cadell Training Centre and said to the wardens that I would like to hand out how-to-vote cards. They were a little concerned that this would not be able to happen, so upon speaking to supervisors it was realised that I could not hand out how-to-vote cards within the prison.

This is something that the Marshall Liberal government has installed—that we would like to introduce the disallowance of inmates to receive how-to-vote cards. It is important to understand that, while in prison, they have certain rights taken away. It is also important to note that those rights have been taken away for a very good reason. In today's society, many people would understand that, in the national picture, South Australia needs to fall into line, and that is exactly what this government is doing: it is calling for the right to vote to be taken away from those prisoners.

I do not think that is an unfair or unreasonable ask, but this commitment to South Australia by the Marshall Liberal government has been done in good faith, and it has also been done for the reason that committing the atrocities that some have, to rehabilitate them, to take away some of the rights from these people, gives them an understanding of what it means not only to disobey the rules, disobey the law or break the law, but that it is also very important to understand that they have to comply. This is just another understanding that, by not complying, they have broken their obligations in today's society.

My contribution is much about people understanding that people who break the law and go into prison will pay the consequences, and one of those consequences will be that they lose their voting rights once they are in custody for a considerable offence. If they are there for more than three years, they lose their right to vote.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Cook.

At 20:43 the house adjourned until Thursday 7 June 2018 at 11:00.