Mr Papalia questions the Minister for Corrective Services about lobbying efforts by MPs to support Prison Fellowship's access to detention centres, prompting a heated exchange regarding the director's offending and the Minister's awareness.

AnsweredQoN 673Legislative Assembly
Asked
8 September 2015
Portfolio
Corrective Services

QuestionView source ↗

PRISON FELLOWSHIP WESTERN AUSTRALIA — DAVID VOLMER
673. Mr P. PAPALIA to the
Minister for Corrective Services:
I have a supplementary question. Was the minister or the
department lobbied or encouraged, either in writing or verbally, to support
Prison Fellowship's access to the detention centre by any member of
Parliament; and, if so, by which member or members?

AnswerView source ↗

Off the top of my head, not that I
can recall; I will have the records checked. What I would say though is that,
as I said before, Prison Fellowship as an organisation, like so many other
organisations, does a lot of good work out there in the justice system. Nobody,
if they did ask for that organisation to have access to any facility in the
prison system, would have known about the offending of the director of Prison
Fellowship. I can guarantee the member, certainly —
Mr
P. Papalia : Banksia Hill has children in it—10-year-olds.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : What is the member saying; I was meant to know? I was meant
to know this guy is a paedophile; am I meant to know that?
Ms
R. Saffioti : Under your watch!
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : They do not come with a sign. No-one knows these things. If
the organisation had said, ''You know what? We want to go out there and
help young people off our own back'', would I have supported it?
Absolutely. Have I or not? I do not know, I will find out and I will get back
to the member. The member cannot possibly expect anyone in authority to have
known about this person's offending, or else he would have been locked
up a long time before.

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