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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-08 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: NEW YOUTH TRAINING CENTRE

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Piccolo:

That the 383rd report of the committee, entitled New Youth Training Centre, be noted.

(Continued from 10 November 2010.)

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (11:21): In concluding my remarks (and I am not quite sure what time I have left on this), I indicate that when I previously spoke on this matter I advised the house (I am not sure whether it got to this stage) of the concern I had for the level of what was more than a $60 million project for a 60-bed youth training centre of which, I think, $6 million or $7 million is proposed to be approved for the architectural fees alone.

Given the way in which these things progress, the architectural fees have already been incurred and therefore will need to be paid; but what does concern me is that we have a project where more than 10 per cent now of the value of the project is absorbed into architectural fees. I do not want to pick them out alone, but I make the point that, in these projects, tens of millions of dollars—often large slabs of the project—are absorbed in project management and costs associated with the supervision of the project and its development, including the architectural fees.

There was a time, I think, when architects had a bigger project management role in the supervision of projects—having developed the plan and design they remained very active in the project; and, in this instance, they may well again. However, we also have a very significant number of other professionals who now are involved in these projects, not only from the department (obviously from an accountability point of view that is very important) but also other professionals are involved in that.

We are seeing an ever-increasing slice of the taxpayer dollar in these major projects go towards professional fees, and I think it is incumbent upon the Public Works Committee when it is reviewing these projects that it does seek some detail about what is actually going to be undertaken in exchange for the fees that are being allocated for these projects.

As I say, it is concerning me that it is ever increasing and, in certain new projects (that is, where there is a new design or a new type of development being undertaken), one might expect that a number of professionals need to come together. But when we are building similar model projects over and over again, whether they are fire stations or other projects for which we have a repeat model, I have to raise the question about the expense that is being allocated for these projects and ask that the Public Works Committee keeps a close eye on this and ensure that, as much as possible, the taxpayer dollar is allocated to the development and construction of the piece of infrastructure for which the Public Works Committee has this very important scrutinising role.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:25): In relation to this motion—and I have had a longstanding interest in matters relating to juveniles—I realise this is about constructing a 60-bed secure youth training centre, which is a euphemism for a prison. Hopefully, in that facility, there will be some positive outcomes, but I would like members to reflect on the reasons why we are having to resort to building an additional large facility. I guess the arguments also extend to why we have to keep building more and more prisons. There are some people you need to lock up, I do not argue with that, but I think we need to look at some of the underlying factors that lead to people ending up in detention, whether as a juvenile or as an adult.

If you look at the United States, we seem to be following the United States' pattern where they lock up more and more people every year. I think in California they have something like 140,000 people in a prison. Now, some of those need to be detained. I do not know whether any members saw a program the other night on television. I do not watch a lot of television, but someone who sexually assaulted two women on campus got a 99-year gaol term. Now, that would never happen here and they are serious crimes.

There are some underlying factors that, I think, we need to address. I have visited Cavan and the Magill Training Centre, and I have visited Yatala on many occasions, as a visitor. I know some people would like me to stay there but it did not happen. If you look at the statistics, you will find that probably half the people in detention have a very poor level of educational attainment, which makes it very difficult for them to be contributing members of society. We have a particularly high incarceration rate of young, as well as adult, Aboriginal offenders in our prisons, and the statistics for those people are even higher in terms of a lower level of educational attainment than for the non-Aboriginal population.

So, I think, one of the things that the community and the government, in particular, need to focus on is to ensure that all young people—Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal—actually get a good education. It is not a guarantee for keeping out of prison or not getting into crime, but it is a pretty much assured method of diminishing the chance of ending up in a prison or youth detention centre. If you cannot read or write, your chance of getting a job is remote and you are unlikely to get gainful employment. You cannot fully participate in society, therefore, I think that is one of the key areas that needs to be addressed.

I know this from experience within my family. My niece Carey (I will not use her full name) has fostered two Aboriginal babies from birth. One of them, Manuel, is now about 19 and has already fathered two children. I saw him the other day in a country town not far from Adelaide. He was in a car and had pulled up at the lights and I was alongside. I said, 'Manuel, what are you doing?' He said, 'Nothing.'

He and his brother, Royce, have both been affected by foetal alcohol syndrome as a result of their mother consuming alcohol during pregnancy. The chance of that eldest lad getting something meaningful is made difficult by the fact that he is a victim of foetal alcohol syndrome, but, critically, whether they are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, the fact that they do not have and have not had a good education hinders their success in life.

The younger lad, Royce, is studying at a Christian school, and I do not have a problem with that, obviously. I commend Families SA for funding him to go to that school. It is one of the lower cost Christian schools in a country town. I think young Royce is about 16 now. He is actually doing work experience at the Mount Barker Police Station, and he wants to join the police force. As a result of getting a better education despite his physical disabilities—which are impairments in relation to his fingers and so on—he will almost certainly go on to achieve a lot more than his older brother is able to. In fact, young Royce has just joined the Air Force Cadets. I think it illustrates the point that, the better the education, the more chance there is that these young people—Aboriginal or otherwise—will be useful and constructive members of society.

As a society, we do not have an organised initiation—and I am not talking about cutting people to make them bleed, and so on—or an organised transition from teenager to adult. In fact, we basically throw young people out and let them, hopefully, find their way in the world. A lot of people call for things like national service as part of an introduction to adulthood. I do not object to that, but I think we could have a system where all young people—they do not have to be involved in military activity—could be involved in something like the Country Fire Service, St John Ambulance, or something, where they can learn a commitment and then practice a commitment to society, and where they can mix with people who can act as good mentors.

People say that our schools are not responsible for the values of our children. I do not accept that. The reality is that a lot of families have broken down. Marriages have broken down and children are growing up in an atmosphere where there is a deficiency of sound values: respect for oneself, respect for others, respect for property, and so on.

Our society was based on traditional Judeo-Christian values and, without getting into the extreme side of that, I think those values are still fundamental and very important. One does not have to be a fundamentalist or an extremist to acknowledge that the basic tenants of the Judeo-Christian belief system are good. Those good values are in other religions as well—Islam and so on. However, we have young people growing up without those core values being reinforced through schools and elsewhere to the extent that they should. As I said, you cannot blame schools for not doing that but, if young people do not grow up with those core values—if they do not get them at home and if they are not reinforced at school and in the wider society—we will end up with more young people being incarcerated.

We have young Aboriginal people who know nothing about traditional Aboriginal culture. When I was the minister for youth, we had a program taking at-risk young Aboriginal men out into the bush in a special vehicle owned by TAFE that cost half a million dollars. After those young people went out there and sat around the campfire—it was run by Aboriginal people—they caused little or no trouble following that experience. We were in the process of setting that up for young Aboriginal women, but, sadly, that program was cancelled.

Young Aboriginal men in particular have very few male role models. They know little about their own culture. They have not been integrated into society in the positive sense of being able to display positive Aboriginal traditional values or the ones that have come from the Judeo-Christian tradition. So, rather than simply focus on building more prisons, more places of incarceration, I think we need to look at some of the underlying causes as to why young people in particular—and adults as well—are going down this path of breaking the law. We need to try to steer people away from that through investment in education and other positive initiatives rather than simply doing what the Americans are doing: building more and more prisons to incarcerate more and more people. I accept that, in the short term, we may have little choice but, in the long term, we need to look at the underlying causes that lead to incarceration and deal with them in a positive way.

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (11:35): Based on the evidence presented to it, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed work go ahead.

Motion carried.

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