❓ Opposition questions the Premier about the Minister for Corrective Services' competence, citing past issues and a recent prison breakout. The Premier defends the Minister, highlighting innovative solutions and criticising the previous government's handling of corrections.
AnsweredQoN 1006Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
MINISTER FOR CORRECTIVE
SERVICES — PERFORMANCE
1006. Dr M.D. NAHAN to the Premier:
I refer to the very perceptive and
predictive article by Gareth Parker written in April 2017 titled ''Fran
Logan is an accident waiting to happen'', which highlighted that he was
a missing-in-action energy minister during the Varanus Island explosion, and
after becoming Minister for Corrective Services, he announced his plan to let
prisoners out of prison.
Given the minister's history
of incompetence and the subsequent litany of Corruption and Crime Commission
reports and today's damning report into Western Australia's
worst prison breakout, will the Premier finally take action and sack this
minister?
SERVICES — PERFORMANCE
1006. Dr M.D. NAHAN to the Premier:
I refer to the very perceptive and
predictive article by Gareth Parker written in April 2017 titled ''Fran
Logan is an accident waiting to happen'', which highlighted that he was
a missing-in-action energy minister during the Varanus Island explosion, and
after becoming Minister for Corrective Services, he announced his plan to let
prisoners out of prison.
Given the minister's history
of incompetence and the subsequent litany of Corruption and Crime Commission
reports and today's damning report into Western Australia's
worst prison breakout, will the Premier finally take action and sack this
minister?
AnswerView source ↗
As
I have said now twice in the house, the corrective services portfolio, like
many portfolios, is not easy. We will find that in prisons—we have a range
of prisons around our very large state—on any given day, there is a range
of issues going on. That is the case under whoever is the minister responsible.
Remember that under the last government, people were walking puppies and they
just walked off. There were riots in Banksia Hill Detention Centre that the
last government was incapable of solving. That occurred regularly. We found
that the last government built a major women's prison right next to a men's
prison, separated by a tennis court fence. That is what happened under the last
government. Under this government, we are trying to deal with these
longstanding issues that bedevilled the corrections section of the state. This
minister, very innovatively, has come up with a way of providing 900 additional
beds for a total cost of $120 million. Remember, prior to the last election,
the last government announced in its death throes, ''We will just go and
borrow another billion dollars to build another prison.'' That is what
the Liberal Party said just before the election: we will borrow another billion
dollars to build another prison. We have managed to provide more beds than that
would have achieved—900 beds—for a total cost of $120 million.
As everyone in Western Australia understands, the state government is resolving
a difficult financial situation left to it. At times, difficult decisions need
to be made. The minister has said to the agency that it needs to live within
its budget. Is that an unreasonable thing to say? Is it unreasonable for the
minister to say, ''Live within your budget''? If only ministers
over the course of the last government had said ''Live within your
budget'', maybe they would not have left us with $40 billion worth of
debt.
I have said now twice in the house, the corrective services portfolio, like
many portfolios, is not easy. We will find that in prisons—we have a range
of prisons around our very large state—on any given day, there is a range
of issues going on. That is the case under whoever is the minister responsible.
Remember that under the last government, people were walking puppies and they
just walked off. There were riots in Banksia Hill Detention Centre that the
last government was incapable of solving. That occurred regularly. We found
that the last government built a major women's prison right next to a men's
prison, separated by a tennis court fence. That is what happened under the last
government. Under this government, we are trying to deal with these
longstanding issues that bedevilled the corrections section of the state. This
minister, very innovatively, has come up with a way of providing 900 additional
beds for a total cost of $120 million. Remember, prior to the last election,
the last government announced in its death throes, ''We will just go and
borrow another billion dollars to build another prison.'' That is what
the Liberal Party said just before the election: we will borrow another billion
dollars to build another prison. We have managed to provide more beds than that
would have achieved—900 beds—for a total cost of $120 million.
As everyone in Western Australia understands, the state government is resolving
a difficult financial situation left to it. At times, difficult decisions need
to be made. The minister has said to the agency that it needs to live within
its budget. Is that an unreasonable thing to say? Is it unreasonable for the
minister to say, ''Live within your budget''? If only ministers
over the course of the last government had said ''Live within your
budget'', maybe they would not have left us with $40 billion worth of
debt.
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