❓ Mr. L'Estrange questions the Premier's confidence in the Minister for Corrective Services regarding community protection from dangerous offenders. The Premier defends the Minister and blames the previous government's policies and contracts for the current situation, highlighting reforms made by the current government.
AnsweredQoN 823Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
MINISTER FOR CORRECTIVE
SERVICES — PERFORMANCE
823. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. How
does the Premier expect to protect the community from dangerous sex offenders
and violent criminals if he leaves in place a minister who does not communicate
effectively to the right agency at the time, and is clearly not up to the task?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
SERVICES — PERFORMANCE
823. Mr S.K. L'ESTRANGE to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. How
does the Premier expect to protect the community from dangerous sex offenders
and violent criminals if he leaves in place a minister who does not communicate
effectively to the right agency at the time, and is clearly not up to the task?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members!
AnswerView source ↗
A very unusual question! The
minister is a very communicative person, in my experience, and has been dealing
with the Commissioner for Corrective Services about these issues extensively.
Obviously, like me, he is not happy with the situation. Just so we all
understand, the company responsible for the officer was acting under a contract
that was signed up by the last Liberal–National government and that we
inherited. The rules and the status of the prisoner were decided in 2013 when
the last Liberal–National government was in office. They are the two
facts involving this officer.
When it comes to dangerous sex
offenders, I want to outline to members again that the dangerous sex offenders
laws were passed back in 2006, when Labor was last in office. Those laws
provide the opportunity for an individual who is imprisoned for a sexual
offence to remain in prison beyond the end of their custodial period. That is
almost unprecedented in Australia. Queensland has a similar model. Western Australia
put the model in place in 2006. That model remained unreformed for the entire
eight and a half years of the last Liberal–National government. When we
came to office, the Attorney General reformed it to make it even tougher,
within the bounds of the State Constitution. At every opportunity when the
issue was raised back when the last government was in office, about some
individuals who would clearly be a risk to the community if they were released,
the former Attorney General, Mr Mischin, and the former Premier, Mr Barnett,
said there will be no changes to the law. That is what happened. Within 18
months or two years of arriving in office, we passed a whole bunch of reforms
that have toughened those dangerous sex offenders laws. Mr Latimer is back in
custody. He would not have been back in custody under the former government. We
have actually toughened the laws significantly.
Members opposite can come into this
place and pretend that history does not exist, but their history is there for
all of us to see. We have changed the laws to toughen them. We have ensured
there is a harsher approach to dangerous sex offenders. We inherited from the
last Liberal–National government the contract under which Mr Dodd was
managed. History is something that members opposite might not like, but it is
there, and it is their history.
The SPEAKER : That is the end
of question time.
minister is a very communicative person, in my experience, and has been dealing
with the Commissioner for Corrective Services about these issues extensively.
Obviously, like me, he is not happy with the situation. Just so we all
understand, the company responsible for the officer was acting under a contract
that was signed up by the last Liberal–National government and that we
inherited. The rules and the status of the prisoner were decided in 2013 when
the last Liberal–National government was in office. They are the two
facts involving this officer.
When it comes to dangerous sex
offenders, I want to outline to members again that the dangerous sex offenders
laws were passed back in 2006, when Labor was last in office. Those laws
provide the opportunity for an individual who is imprisoned for a sexual
offence to remain in prison beyond the end of their custodial period. That is
almost unprecedented in Australia. Queensland has a similar model. Western Australia
put the model in place in 2006. That model remained unreformed for the entire
eight and a half years of the last Liberal–National government. When we
came to office, the Attorney General reformed it to make it even tougher,
within the bounds of the State Constitution. At every opportunity when the
issue was raised back when the last government was in office, about some
individuals who would clearly be a risk to the community if they were released,
the former Attorney General, Mr Mischin, and the former Premier, Mr Barnett,
said there will be no changes to the law. That is what happened. Within 18
months or two years of arriving in office, we passed a whole bunch of reforms
that have toughened those dangerous sex offenders laws. Mr Latimer is back in
custody. He would not have been back in custody under the former government. We
have actually toughened the laws significantly.
Members opposite can come into this
place and pretend that history does not exist, but their history is there for
all of us to see. We have changed the laws to toughen them. We have ensured
there is a harsher approach to dangerous sex offenders. We inherited from the
last Liberal–National government the contract under which Mr Dodd was
managed. History is something that members opposite might not like, but it is
there, and it is their history.
The SPEAKER : That is the end
of question time.
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