The Boomgate

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Can the minister outline how the non-government and corporate sectors are supporting the families of offenders and providing the foundations for successfully reintegrating into the community?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for his question. On more than one occasion I have had the opportunity to speak in this place regarding the government's long-term strategy to deal with Corrections policy generally by focusing all our efforts, or certainly a large amount of our effort, in trying to reduce the rate of reoffending.

Reducing the rate of reoffending would bring with it a number of benefits for the South Australian community, not the least of which is a safer community but also savings to the South Australian taxpayer and, of course, there is the general public policy benefit of reducing the South Australian prison population.

Prisons play an important part of the rehabilitative journey whilst an offender is serving their sentence but life on the outside must continue for their families. Families are a very critical component in the rehabilitation of a prisoner. Once a prisoner is serving their time back to the community it is important that the family can still get around to them to ensure that the rehabilitation process takes place. As a result, one of the most important times for an offender whilst in custody is visits from their friends and family and is their sole link to the community that, for most offenders, they will ultimately return to.

However, those who have visited any of our state's custodial facilities will know that prisons are not a pleasant place: they are imposing custodial environments designed to deprive an offender of their liberty. Offenders Aid and Rehabilitation Services, LendLease and the Red Cross recognise the impact a visit to a prisoner may have on families and friends and they sought to create a bridge to the community from prison for those visiting offenders. Visits can be a difficult and emotional time for both prisoners and their families, partners and children. In response, OARS established the Family Centre around 10 years ago and this facility provides a service to assist people after they come out of a visit, and provides a refuge for the families of prisoners to go to before and after visits.

However, after a decade of use the centre was in need of an upgrade. Last year, LendLease employees completed a week-long, full makeover of the OARS Family Centre, now named The Boomgate. The building giants, LendLease, provided the resources for the much-needed facelift which, in turn, has provided an important psychological boost for visiting families. LendLease gave The Boomgate a facelift—painting, carpeting and generally freshening up the space—in order to enable OARS to better use the facility.

As a result of the partnership between Lendlease, The Boomgate is now a better place for families, particularly kids, to be able to play before or after visiting a family member in custody. I think it is fantastic to see organisations such as Lendlease working with OARS and the Department of Correctional Services on projects like this. It is a great example of the private sector working closely with government and the non-government sector to deliver a good outcome.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who work at The Boomgate every Saturday and during other visit times. Those people who volunteer in and around Corrections generally have a high degree of courage to take up that work. It is not the sort of volunteer work that has the natural attraction that many other types of work within the non-government sector do, so for those people who have the courage to commit themselves to trying to rehabilitate offenders, I acknowledge all their hard work.

As always, we acknowledge those non-government sector organisations that provide a whole range of assistance and, in this case, I would particularly like to acknowledge OARS and Red Cross. Finally, I acknowledge Lendlease, which is a private sector company, motivated by profit, clearly, but they also have a social conscience and a sense of social justice by committing themselves to this project, and that deserves great commendation.