House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-06 Daily Xml

Contents

Correctional Services Department

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:04): Has the minister consulted with the Public Service Association—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Sorry, member for Lee. The Minister for Education is warned. I would like to hear the question. Thank you.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Has the minister consulted with the Public Service Association about his plans to casualise the Corrections' workforce?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:04): I thank the member for the question. I have had a couple of meetings with the Public Service Association and I was meant to catch up with them again—it might have actually been this week. We have a wonderful relationship, but they cut the courtship short and they cancelled that meeting, so I'm happy to sit down and discuss those issues with them.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: But, again, I stress the point: we make no apologies on this side about growing our workforce, about creating more jobs, getting more people working and growing our prison system, investing $200 million to have a better prison system because the one that was left behind did need plenty of work. It wasn't in a good shape and we are doing that.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Again, the concern of having more prisoners than prison beds didn't worry those over there. We know they had the theory of rack 'em, stack 'em and pack 'em. Well, we have a different theory, and we want to make sure that we have the right conditions—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Industry is called to order and warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you, Mr Speaker. So we have the program in place—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Education!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —for investing $200 million dollars in our prison system and, despite the interjections that came from those in my previous answer, I was talking about the opportunities we are going to have to grow jobs in this system. Be it in the privately run system at the Adelaide Remand Centre or through the expansion of the Northfield precinct, there will be more jobs in the prison system.

We want to have a better prison system for South Australia, and we will be creating work and employment through that system, not to mention the actual building, the construction jobs and all those things along the way of the expansion project we are doing. This is a really positive program. This will get better results. We will have a better environment to be able to implement our rehabilitation programs. Again, we don't want our prisoners in the rack 'em, stack 'em and pack 'em program. We want to get them into programs where we can help with their rehabilitation, get them back into the community–

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —I hear—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —the leader yelling out from the other side.

The SPEAKER: Order! Please do not respond to interjections, minister.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: No, I'm not. I am just—

The SPEAKER: The question was about consultation with the PSA—please.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: You did. You just did respond. You did respond. Don't say you didn't.

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

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Sorry, Mr Speaker. The member for Mawson makes me laugh and I shouldn't. I should stay focused on what we're talking about here.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson, you're on two warnings. I'm listening.

Mr Duluk: Do your button up, Leon. Do your button up.

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Mr Speaker, again, with all these interjections it is hard to concentrate in this place, but what I will say and the point I will emphasise is that investing in our prison system and growing jobs in our prison system is something that we do not apologise for. We need a better prison system and that is what this government is going to deliver: better services for South Australia.