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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-15 Daily Xml
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PRISONS, BEDS

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:05): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Correctional Services a question about the prison system.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: In 1994 the then minister for correctional services (minister Matthew) defended the doubling up of prisoners in cells in the Adelaide Remand Centre when he reportedly said:

Well, that's not such a bad thing, because when prisoners are on remand they have a few problems, obviously. They need a bit of supervision, and what better form of supervision than to have two prisoners together in the one cell to look after each other?

In this council on 10 September, the minister said:

Sometimes it is important to have a buddy system for those who feel vulnerable or who cannot be left on their own. So, clearly, that is one of the options that is available to the government at the new infrastructure at Mobilong.

In the House of Assembly in August 1994, the then shadow correctional services minister (a Mr K. Foley, member for Hart, now the Hon. K. Foley) described minister Matthew's comment as 'inane, ridiculous, ill-thought out and irresponsible'. Does the minister accept the Treasurer's criticism that her comments are inane, ridiculous, ill-thought out and irresponsible?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Gambling, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:06): The opposition is very clearly making fun of a major incident that occurred last week. I have said—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Well, Wayne Matthew thought that yours was just an incident: I think it was a major incident, and it certainly was. I am on the record—I am now the Minister for Correctional Services—as being open and transparent in saying that we do have doubling up in our cells. I will not resile from that. Again, I will say that I would rather have two prisoners in a cell than seeing people out in the community who should not be out there. We will always ensure that we have a safe and secure system in this state, because to do otherwise would not be looking after the portfolio in a responsible way.

We have seen a major incident, so we do have an interim strategy in place. Again, I do thank SAPOL, and I thank the PSA for ensuring that beds have been made available. Losing 92 beds out of the system is a major number. I do not think that any jurisdiction could automatically cope with that. We must have some interim strategies. We will be looking to have beds on line at Port Augusta in a timely fashion, but, clearly, some will be on line earlier than others given the extensive damage that occurred last week. In relation to other people's comments, I would say that I express myself in different ways and so do other people.

I do not think that I will lose sleep over what the opposition considers to be somewhat flippant remarks. I am quite honest in my remarks. Yes, we will have doubling up in some of our cells in South Australia.

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