Prisoner Rehabilitation

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:39): By way of supplementary question, would the minister outline, given his comments regarding rehabilitation, how many prisoners in South Australia are actually in meaningful work at the moment?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:40): I thank the Hon. Mr Stephens for a productive and thought through question, and one that speaks to an important component of getting prisoners rehabilitated. I am more than happy to take that question on notice with some specific numbers, but I would say that we have a nation leading (as I recall) number of people within work.

In terms of a specific percentage, I am more than happy to get that. The prison industry section within Correctional Services is one that we are proud of. Giving prisoners a structured day where they earn that right is an appropriate and necessary form of reintegrating the prison population back into the community. We have also been innovative when it comes to programs for prisoners on day release who imminently are to be released so that they are integrated back into the community. These are the sorts of areas that we look at.

I note the fact that the opposition has initiated a parliamentary inquiry into corrections. Unusually, that is something I have welcomed. I have welcomed an inquiry in the hope that the opposition, along with other members in the chamber, are genuinely committed to productive policymaking through that exercise.

To the extent that opposition members want to familiarise themselves with the challenges and the policy difficulties in this area, that is a good thing. If they have good ideas, if they have productive ideas, I will be the first to listen to them, but if the opposition's attempts through this parliamentary inquiry are to score political points, then we will check them for that and hold them to account, as their policy up to this point has been absolutely nothing but motherhood statements.