Adelaide Remand Centre

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (15:24): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Does the minister agree with comments by the PSA today that the government has destroyed the trust of the sector as a result of privatising the Adelaide Remand Centre?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:25): I thank the member for the question. The short answer is absolutely not—absolutely not. I mentioned before the mess and the crisis that the previous government left South Australia in. We needed to have a solution. We needed to come up with a solution and we are working with the PSA and with Correctional Services officers to give them job security into the future.

Again, I stress the point that I went down there and spoke with them in person last night to assure them that their jobs are safe. The opportunities will be there into the future at Yatala and also at the Women's Prison in the metropolitan area. We have other great prisons, mind you, in the regions—Port Augusta, Murray Bridge and Port Lincoln—and opportunities are there. Cadell and the Riverland obviously appreciate the job opportunities there, too. They will have opportunities there where they choose or, as I mentioned, they could go with the outsourced operator as well, so absolutely not. What we are doing is making sure that the people of South Australia are safe, that we have the high security beds we need going forward and that we fix up the mess left by the previous government.