Grievance Debate

Adelaide Remand Centre

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:21): Throughout the course of that question time, it was hard not to reflect on the fact that we have not seen such a weak, tepid or underwhelming performance as the one we have just seen from the minister for corrections throughout the course of the entirety of this term of parliament. What we saw on show from the Minister for Correctional Services during the course of the last hour was a deliberate avoidance of answering elementary questions that a minister across his brief, understanding the seriousness of his responsibility, would have answered.

What we have witnessed in the last hour is a demonstration of a minister who is determined to execute a complete abdication of his responsibility to the people of South Australia to understand what it takes to keep people safe. There is nothing more important than for the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services to focus on the safety of the people of this state. An elementary function that the Minister for Correctional Services has is to ensure that his department and his policies are consistent with keeping those people who have been removed from society and deprived of their liberty in custody in order to protect the community from the harm that they would otherwise expose South Australians to.

The rap sheet of the individual who yesterday escaped from the Remand Centre is extensive. The list of crimes that this individual currently is accused of before the courts is substantial—a list that one would have thought demanded of this minister that he ensure that everybody in his department for which he is responsible is doing their job. But what we heard instead throughout the course of question time was a minister who does not even know how many people were working at the Remand Centre yesterday, a minister who seemingly has not even asked the question, 'What has our policy of privatisation done to staffing levels at the Remand Centre?' He refused to know and apparently has not even asked the question.

So allow us to enlighten this minister about exactly what his policy has achieved thus far. We know, from the remarks of the former corrections minister, the member for Gibson, that this policy of privatising the Adelaide Remand Centre is a cost-cutting exercise to the tune of $8 million per annum. So it is hardly a surprise that in order to achieve a cost-cutting exercise of $8 million, there has been a fundamental reduction in staffing levels at the Adelaide Remand Centre.

Only 15 months after this minister and his government executed that policy, what have we seen? None other than an inmate of a maximum security prison facility climbing out the window in broad daylight and then, to add salt to the wound, police were not notified until 25 minutes after an event took place—a factor this minister is not remotely interested in.

Mr Whetstone: Who told you that?

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The police did. They are not even interested.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Now what was the consequence of that?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: This minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Chaffey is warned for a second time. It is most unusual for a member in the course of the grievance debate to be so interrupted as to need to pause his contribution. The leader is, in the course of his contribution to the grievance debate, entitled to be heard in silence. He will be heard in silence. The leader has the call.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: A 25-minute head start is what this minister's private operators decided to give someone who escaped a maximum security facility. What is the consequence of that? We know right now that if there is one agency in South Australia under more pressure than any other, it is South Australia Police. South Australia Police have had their resources fully expended in order to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday and today, those resources now are not being allocated to that exercise but instead are running around metropolitan Adelaide trying to find someone who is supposed to be inside a maximum security prison.

The privatisation policy has consequences and what makes it even worse is that it represents a fundamental broken promise from this Premier. He had no privatisation agenda and within two years of becoming elected they privatised a maximum security prison, privatised publicly owned electricity generators, privatised hospital patient transfers, sought to privatise Pathology SA, privatised family day care—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —privatised the trains, privatised the trams. We will not let them get away with it and this minister better start doing his job.

Time expired.