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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Correctional Services Department

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (13:59): I had a supplementary arising from the minister's answer, but I will ask it as a fresh question.

The SPEAKER: A new question.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Have there been a number of staff identified to be moved to a casual basis in the department for corrections?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (13:59): No, absolutely not. In fact, I am glad the member asked that question because one of the things—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I am going to ask the member for Reynell to please leave for half an hour under 137A.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: And the Minister for Primary Industries will be joining her if he continues. Half an hour.

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is called to order and warned. We will resume when the member departs, thank you.

The honourable member for Reynell having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The answer was no. What I did want to say, though, in relation to this—and we have made this clear, but I just want to make it even clearer again—is that, as part of the process of our better prisons program, when I came into this job it was put on the table that we would have more prisoners than prison beds by 2020, and there was no plan to put in place to accommodate that.

I mentioned the extra prison beds that we are putting into our public system—310 extra beds at the Northfield site, at the Yatala prison and the Women's Prison as well, which will generate more jobs in the prison system and which is a really great outcome for South Australia. However, as part of the outsourcing of the management of the Remand Centre, on the day of the budget I went down and spoke to all the workers there and gave the firm commitment that their jobs within the public system are there if they so choose. So, as far as—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order by the member for Lee. Point of order?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The point of order relates to relevance. The question was very clear about whether a number had been identified.

The SPEAKER: Debate. I have the point of order. Minister, I do ask you to keep to the substance of the question. I will be listening carefully. Thank you.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The substance of the question was about the jobs and whether anyone had been identified to have a change in their structure or their role, and I said that the answer was no. I was outlining the fact that everyone at the Adelaide Remand Centre was spoken to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order and warned.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee, please, you're not helping here. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and I appreciate your protection. As I was outlining to the member for Lee, I did speak to all the people who worked at the Adelaide Remand Centre on the day of the budget and made it abundantly clear that, with the $200 million investment that we are putting into our public prisons to expand the number of prison beds on the Northfield site, the 310 beds, all the people who work in the public prison system will be able to stay working in metropolitan Adelaide.

I think I have probably said in this place before, but I will say it again so the member for Lee can be familiar with it, that they could also look to work in some of our regions—Port Lincoln, Port Augusta or the like—at some of our public prisons there as well if they want to have a bit of a sea change and work in the regions because our regions are fantastic.

However, they can stay in metropolitan Adelaide is the guarantee we gave when we made this decision on budget day. They can stay working in the public system, or they could see a great opportunity and want to go with the private provider and work at the Adelaide Remand Centre still. They could see great opportunity to grow their careers and grow their operation. So there is a chance here for them stay working in the prison systems, and this outcome will actually be growing prison jobs because we will have the extra 150-odd jobs at the Adelaide Remand Centre.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: once again, relevance. The question was about the number of staff to be made casual, not about—

The SPEAKER: Debate. It is a fair point of order, but I think the minister is attempting to answer it. I think he is wrapping up his answer, too.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I am and I did, and I made very clear right at the start that there was no intention. I think the member asked had I planned to or had I not, and I said no. But what I needed to add to that was what this will be able to do is that it will actually be able to give more people a chance to work in the system. So maybe if people are, I don't know, a plumber or a carpenter and they want to get an extra job and earn extra money they can come and be part of this workforce as well.

We invite people to explore that option, and we speak of veterans. In fact, I was just speaking of veterans before and working in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I absolutely was.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is on two warnings.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Mr Speaker—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I find it incongruous that when we talk about growing jobs those opposite want to keep criticising that. We will keep talking about growing jobs on this side of the house and we make no apologies for it.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The member for Lee and then the member for Florey.

Ms Bedford: You said that last time.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

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