Adelaide Remand Centre

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:27): My question is to the Treasurer regarding privatisation. As Treasurer and minister for the public sector, what have been the reductions in staff numbers at the Adelaide Remand Centre since its privatisation and what have been the changes in staff to prisoner ratios over the same period?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:27): Those questions can best be directed to either the CEO of the department and/or the minister responsible. What I can say is that this government does not resile—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Quiet!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —from its defence of the decisions that were taken—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Members on my left will be quiet!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —and in the interests of the taxpayers of South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Treasurer will resume his seat. What is the point of asking a question where no-one in the chamber could hear what the Treasurer was saying then—I certainly couldn't. I call the Treasurer. He will be heard in silence.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I could hear what I was saying, Mr President, even if I was the only one. We don't resile in any particular way. There are very significant savings to the taxpayers of South Australia in terms of many millions of dollars in relation to the outsourcing decision, and under the arrangements with other government correctional services institutions over the last 16 or 20 years under the Labor government there have been the occasional prisoner escapes. One famous occasion—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —when, under the ministerial guidance of the now Leader of the Opposition, Mr Malinauskas, I think the prisoner knocked on the door to try to get back into Yatala and they wouldn't let him in. That is how they ran the system they are talking about.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. E.S. Bourke interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Emily Bourke is out of order, but the Treasurer does not require any assistance from his ministerial colleagues either.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: We don't have a situation where prisoners are knocking on the door trying to get back in and we are refusing them entry, as occurred under the former Labor government. It is unfortunate when the occasional escape from custody occurs, whether it be under an outsourced arrangement or whether it be under the more traditional favoured or preferred course adopted by the former Labor government. This government doesn't resile in any way from the decisions it has taken in relation to—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, you have been quite quiet recently and I would like you to return to that.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —the outsourced division of the Adelaide Remand Centre being in the public interest.