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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
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Correctional Services

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. Does the minister agree with the police commissioner that the government is playing musical chairs with remand prisoners in police cells and that this is now affecting police operations?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:38): This is a very important question, and it is something that involves a question that raises the issue of the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole justice system, from the point at which a person might be apprehended by the police through to the processing of that person through the court system, through to the admission or not of that person into a Correctional Services facility.

I heard with interest the comments made by the police commissioner today. That is one of the reasons why last year, in about July, we established the Criminal Justice Reform Council to look at these issues. It has as members of that council the Commissioner of Police, the head of the Legal Services Commission, the head of each of the court jurisdictions, the head of Correctional Services and my colleague the Minister for Police and Correctional Services.

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Indeed. That is why, at the swearing-in after the election, the Premier asked me to undertake the process of justice reform, which is intended to look at the whole system, that is, from one end to the other. The important point to make about this is that Corrections are a recipient of whatever product comes through the system. They have no control of how many prisoners come their way because that is determined by the police, who either do or do not grant bail at a particular occasion; it is determined by the courts, who do or do not grant bail; and it is determined by the statutes that this place passes, because they either require people to be imprisoned or they don't.

So, the idea that we can focus on Corrections as a single entity and say, 'Look, what's going on in Corrections?' is a complete fallacy and it misunderstands the position overall. There is no doubt that if you wanted to be simplistic about the matter you would be banging the drum of, 'Let's build more prisons, let's build more prisons.' It may be that, in time, prison capacity does need to be reviewed, and indeed I know the minister—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Mr Speaker, I don't find anything funny about talking about prisoners.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The Minister for Corrections has already got projects in the pipeline which are going to be addressing, to some extent, the requirements of the system. But, Mr Speaker, can I give you one example of where I think some useful work can be done which will ameliorate some of these problems? At the moment—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I'm trying to provide information to the parliament because I thought the parliament was interested in what's going on in our system.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel is called to order in order to support his previous warning.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: He's been distracting the others a bit, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Sorry?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: He's been upsetting the others from back there, I think. Where was I up to?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes, remand prisoners. It is a well-known fact, if you look at the ROGS material, that in South Australia we have a higher proportion of prisoners on remand than in any other state.

An honourable member: Shame.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Perhaps.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel is warned a second and final time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: He's attempting to intimidate me, Mr Speaker. Oh dear, I'm out of time.

The SPEAKER: I'm afraid that's all we have time for.

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