Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to ask the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship some questions relating to the Inverbrackie detention facility in my electorate of Mayo. I am sure the minister will be surprised that I have risen to ask him these questions. This is the first budget post the announcement that the minister made when he ambushed my community in October last year—the day after the Prime Minister visited for a photo opportunity. He made his announcement the next day here, in the confines of Parliament House, rather than in the Adelaide Hills, just 17 kilometres from Woodside, where she was the day before. The announcement followed an election where it was promised there would be no more onshore detention processing facilities.

Putting those facts on the table, I seek the minister's indulgence for me to ask a few questions. If he cannot answer them here, would he be so kind as to take them on notice, as he did with questions by the member for Cook. My questions include these. What is the total cost of the establishment of the Inverbrackie detention facility, including a breakdown of how much per property the government has spent on upgrading the facility prior to its opening in late December? What is the total recurrent spending over the forward estimates for the facility, including the costs of transport, the use of local health services and educational facilities and payments to the state government? In relation to those issues, could the minister outline to the House whether the state government agreement has been signed yet regarding the children from Inverbrackie attending local schools?

The minister was gracious enough, it must be acknowledged, to come along to a public meeting at Lobethal, in the Adelaide Hills, in November last year, when there was outrage in the community a couple of months after he made the announcement. He made several claims that evening that there would be a significant economic benefit to the local community. I am interested in whether the minister can now verify, in facts and figures, the economic benefit that he talked about that evening, including how many jobs have been created for local people from the Adelaide Hills, the percentage of total spending on the facility and how much of that has gone to local businesses and local contractors. For instance, how much of the building work that went on in Inverbrackie went to local contractors? Other than the grocery service, which locals are providing for the Inverbrackie facility, how many other local contractors and businesses have ongoing contracts for the facility?

I have two more issues. Can the minister outline whether the arrangements between the AFP and SAPOL have been finalised, in the event that there is an issue at the Inverbrackie facility? There has been recent media speculation that there has not been an agreement signed between the AFP and SAPOL in that respect, because of course Inverbrackie is a federal facility.

There is also an issue relating to a bushfire plan. I know we are not in the bushfire season now, but this was an issue in the past and I understand from the local CFS that it still has not been finalised. Can the minister clarify that? Finally, in relation to the management of the facility, there have been some very disturbing reports in decent investigative articles by Brad Crouch in the Sunday Mail in Adelaide about how many workers compensation claims have been made by Serco employees and the incidents they relate to.

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