❓ Question regarding a drug bust at Bunbury prison and the government's strategy to combat contraband. The Minister's answer details the operation and criticizes the previous government's record.
AnsweredQoN 1020Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
BUNBURY REGIONAL PRISON —
CONTRABAND
1020. Mr M.J. FOLKARD to the Minister for Corrective
Services:
I refer to the McGowan government's
unrelenting —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member, can you
start again please?
Mr M.J. FOLKARD : I refer to
the McGowan government's unrelenting fight to protect the community and
to ensure that drugs and other contraband are kept out of the state's
jails. Can the minister outline to the house how this government's
hardline strategy to prevent and disrupt the smuggling of illicit drugs led to
last week's significant drug bust at the Bunbury prison?
CONTRABAND
1020. Mr M.J. FOLKARD to the Minister for Corrective
Services:
I refer to the McGowan government's
unrelenting —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member, can you
start again please?
Mr M.J. FOLKARD : I refer to
the McGowan government's unrelenting fight to protect the community and
to ensure that drugs and other contraband are kept out of the state's
jails. Can the minister outline to the house how this government's
hardline strategy to prevent and disrupt the smuggling of illicit drugs led to
last week's significant drug bust at the Bunbury prison?
AnswerView source ↗
Thank you very much indeed, Mr
Speaker. I acknowledge and recognise both the member's commitment to
and history in working to tackle the scourge of drugs in Western Australia.
Last week the corrective services
commissioner led a drug raid on Bunbury prison that involved shutting down the
entire prison and searching every single cell and every part of the prison.
Acting on intelligence, on the preceding Saturday, Bunbury Regional Prison
staff located contraband in the metal shop area of the facility. The drugs and
drug paraphernalia were found in two locations in the workshop, very discretely
hidden inside metal tubing. In order to protect the staff, the prisoners and
the integrity of the prison system, the commissioner led a full-scale search of
the entire Bunbury prison.
The three-day operation involved
staff from Bunbury and Albany prisons, the special operations group, the drug
detection unit and the Department of Justice professional standards division.
In total, 50 additional staff were deployed to Bunbury to assist in the search.
As a result, a number of contraband amounts were found. The initial contraband
discovered on the Saturday inside the metal tubing had already been taken away
but as a result of the search of the entire prison, small amounts of, I believe,
cannabis were found in the kitchen area. Overall, five prisoners were removed
in chains from Bunbury prison and taken to another prison. I believe the WA
Police Force is currently investigating their involvement in that drug bust.
On a very, very important initiative
undertaken by the commissioner and a great drug bust inside our prisons, the
response from the member for Churchlands, the shadow Minister for Corrective
Services—on ABC news radio Perth last Thursday—was, ''What
this government should be focussing on is preventing the problems from
occurring in the first place.'' This was a significant drug bust and the
only commentary from —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : —
the shadow minister was, ''Well you should've stopped this from
happening in the first place.''
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : Shall we put
this into context with what the previous government did?
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Warren–Blackwood!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : As we know,
this is all set out very carefully in various Corruption and Crime Commission
reports that dealt with his failures during his time in office. Since coming to
office, to deal with his failures, we have put in place a director of security—these
were all called for, by the way, by the CCC—the professional standards
unit.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members! I know
you think you are funny but you are not.
Mr F.M. LOGAN : They are
laughing with embarrassment at their failures —
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for Warren–Blackwood,
you are not a minister any more.
Mr F.M. LOGAN : — because in dealing with the CCC reports,
we have acted on what members opposite failed to do. We have put in
place a director of security and a professional standards unit and reintroduced
the 2018–22 drug strategy, which had not been in place since 2014. Last
year, over 6 000 searches of staff and prisons were undertaken across Western Australian
prisons. As a result of our intelligence-led information, which continues
across our prison systems, we are getting drug busts such as those in Bunbury.
The response of the commissioner and the Department of Justice is to come down
hard on every single prison from where we get that intelligence. It is to turn
the entire place over and make sure the prisoners understand that drugs in
prisons will not be tolerated. Members opposite should put that into
perspective and compare it with what happened under the previous government. It
walked away from the drug strategy in 2014. Members opposite did nothing and
that is why that commentary in the CCC report nails all members opposite. They
were a failure as a government.
Speaker. I acknowledge and recognise both the member's commitment to
and history in working to tackle the scourge of drugs in Western Australia.
Last week the corrective services
commissioner led a drug raid on Bunbury prison that involved shutting down the
entire prison and searching every single cell and every part of the prison.
Acting on intelligence, on the preceding Saturday, Bunbury Regional Prison
staff located contraband in the metal shop area of the facility. The drugs and
drug paraphernalia were found in two locations in the workshop, very discretely
hidden inside metal tubing. In order to protect the staff, the prisoners and
the integrity of the prison system, the commissioner led a full-scale search of
the entire Bunbury prison.
The three-day operation involved
staff from Bunbury and Albany prisons, the special operations group, the drug
detection unit and the Department of Justice professional standards division.
In total, 50 additional staff were deployed to Bunbury to assist in the search.
As a result, a number of contraband amounts were found. The initial contraband
discovered on the Saturday inside the metal tubing had already been taken away
but as a result of the search of the entire prison, small amounts of, I believe,
cannabis were found in the kitchen area. Overall, five prisoners were removed
in chains from Bunbury prison and taken to another prison. I believe the WA
Police Force is currently investigating their involvement in that drug bust.
On a very, very important initiative
undertaken by the commissioner and a great drug bust inside our prisons, the
response from the member for Churchlands, the shadow Minister for Corrective
Services—on ABC news radio Perth last Thursday—was, ''What
this government should be focussing on is preventing the problems from
occurring in the first place.'' This was a significant drug bust and the
only commentary from —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : —
the shadow minister was, ''Well you should've stopped this from
happening in the first place.''
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : Shall we put
this into context with what the previous government did?
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Warren–Blackwood!
Mr F.M. LOGAN : As we know,
this is all set out very carefully in various Corruption and Crime Commission
reports that dealt with his failures during his time in office. Since coming to
office, to deal with his failures, we have put in place a director of security—these
were all called for, by the way, by the CCC—the professional standards
unit.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members! I know
you think you are funny but you are not.
Mr F.M. LOGAN : They are
laughing with embarrassment at their failures —
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for Warren–Blackwood,
you are not a minister any more.
Mr F.M. LOGAN : — because in dealing with the CCC reports,
we have acted on what members opposite failed to do. We have put in
place a director of security and a professional standards unit and reintroduced
the 2018–22 drug strategy, which had not been in place since 2014. Last
year, over 6 000 searches of staff and prisons were undertaken across Western Australian
prisons. As a result of our intelligence-led information, which continues
across our prison systems, we are getting drug busts such as those in Bunbury.
The response of the commissioner and the Department of Justice is to come down
hard on every single prison from where we get that intelligence. It is to turn
the entire place over and make sure the prisoners understand that drugs in
prisons will not be tolerated. Members opposite should put that into
perspective and compare it with what happened under the previous government. It
walked away from the drug strategy in 2014. Members opposite did nothing and
that is why that commentary in the CCC report nails all members opposite. They
were a failure as a government.
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