Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion that I moved last month in relation to the Magill Youth Training Centre in my electorate in South Australia. The centre has been the subject of much controversy in recent times with the state Labor government facing difficulties over the mismanagement of their budget over a long period of time during the whole eight years that they have been in government. That mismanagement that has occurred has been reflected by the fact that they had to make a decision to reverse a previous decision to build a new youth training centre in South Australia. This motion was moved in the same terms in the Senate by Senator Hanson-Young, the Greens senator from South Australia, and I know that the member for Mackellar would be surprised by that bipartisan arrangement. But it highlights the fact that such was the anger towards the state Labor government that we got together and moved that motion. She was successful in having it passed in the Senate to highlight just how badly the state Labor government have been managing their budget.

In the week following my putting this motion on the Notice Paper the South Australian government buckled under all the pressure and backflipped. I thought of removing it, given that the issue had been dealt with. But I thought it still presented an important opportunity to talk about the effects of governments mismanaging budgets by spending too much money such as the impacts that has on the delivery of services to the community. This issue was starkly brought to my attention by a visit from Chris Varney, who is Australia’s youth ambassador to the United Nations. Mr Varney was successful in being one of the very few people to gain access to see the conditions inside the Magill Youth Training Centre. We all accept that young offenders need to be incarcerated from time to time. They should be if they commit offences. However, they should be incarcerated in a humane way—and we have just seen a motion before this House in relation to the mistreatment of young people. I think it goes beyond doubt that the treatment of the young people in this centre was and is still today not appropriate.

This motion also sought to bring to public attention the role of the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth whose job it is to represent young people of our country at a federal level. Her role is not just to represent youth in the positive circumstances as she often does, but more importantly, for those young people who are in difficult circumstances. This minister also has a unique relationship with the South Australian Labor government, in particular those who made the decision not to go ahead with the rebuilding of the Magill Training Centre. We thought it was important that the minister involve herself in trying to resolve this issue through her unique position. I must say it is disappointing that, after three months, I still have not received a reply to a letter I wrote bringing this issue to her attention, but I guess she is very busy.

The centre was planned to be replaced as far back as 1999 when the then South Australian Liberal government announced it was to be rebuilt at Cavan. However, this was shelved when the Labor government took office in 2002. In 2006, the Rann government announced it would rebuild a suite of correctional facilities. However, due to the mismanagement of the state budget, the Rann government had to cut that promise in last year’s budget. They are using the tough-on-crime rhetoric that we often see with media Mike Rann, and his sidekick, the Treasurer. We know that that is all spin and no substance given that the gang of 49 seem to be running around South Australia at the moment doing what they like.

The Magill Training Centre has been criticised by everyone; from the Greens in the Senate, to our side of politics, to their social inclusion adviser, Monsignor Cappo, who we all presume—given that the Treasurer says anyone who criticises this is soft on crime—is also included in that criticism. Pressure from Stephen Wade, a spokesman in the state Liberal party; John Gardner, who is the candidate for Morialta; several media outlets, including Matt and Dave; and the state Labor government’s polling reflected that they needed to do something about it and thus we saw the backflip. A week after this motion was moved, the Minister for Families and Communities in South Australia, Jennifer Rankine, said that if they built this it would damage the state’s AAA credit rating.

That is quite an extraordinary announcement, that a $60 million one-off spend would actually damage the state’s AAA credit rating. It just highlights how this state Labor government’s waste and mismanagement over eight years has sent South Australia back to the bad old days of the State Bank. The worst thing is that we are seeing exactly the same thing in this national parliament today, with this Prime Minister. This government should be condemned for its waste and mismanagement. (Time expired)

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter in order to bring some balance and some factual material to this debate. Let me say from the outset that, while the member for Mayo talks about mismanagement by the current state Labor government in South Australia, I would like to point out to him a fact that he pretty much acknowledged himself towards the end of his contribution, that it was a state Labor government that brought the state finances to a point where the state today has a AAA credit rating, a rating that it has been able to maintain for several years now. You cannot, on one hand, be saying that you have mismanaged the state finances yet still maintain a AAA credit rating for your state. The two arguments simply are in contradiction to each other. This is a serious matter.

This is a very serious matter. So much so, that it is a matter that has been ongoing in South Australia for almost three decades. If time permits I will talk a little about its history. But I would say this in an attempt to highlight the seriousness of this matter: if you talk to our police, if you talk to our court officials, if you talk to the correctional services department, or if you talk to Monsignor David Cappo, the Commissioner for Social Inclusion in South Australia, they will all admit that it is a very complex matter to deal with. That is why it is a matter that still needs to be resolved the government of the day.

It is a complex matter because we are dealing with young lives and there are no simple fixes to the problems and situations that they often find themselves in. It is not an issue that you can find a simple fix to when you are dealing with criminal acts of people, regardless of age. The truth of the matter is that it goes back about three decades. It was in the early 1980s that the Labor government of the day began the process of rebuilding a new youth detention facility at Cavan, at Jonal Drive, and that facility still exists. It has, I think, space for about 36 young offenders.

Subsequently—I say subsequently—the Liberal government of the day did look to relocate the Magill facility to a site at Cavan, close to but not adjacent to the Jonal Drive site. They purchased that site in the nineties. I am well aware of that; I was involved in the negotiations. That was in 1999. In fact the decision was made before that. They left office in 2002, three years later. So to say that the Labor government then reneged on completing a commitment made by the previous Liberal government fails to take account of the fact that the Liberals had three years to follow through on it. The truth is that they too walked away from the decision to rebuild the Magill centre at Cavan and left it in limbo. The state Labor government did come to power and continued the negotiations as to where the best location for that facility ought to be. The decision was not made lightly, because there are a lot of factors that you need to take into account when you build a detention facility of any kind—factors relating to access to it and access to family members of those people who are in custody.

That said, the decision was then made to continue and rebuild the new facility at Cavan. It was linked to the extensions to the adult facility at Mobilong, extensions which were packaged up as a $600 million investment in additional correctional facilities in South Australia. It is because of the $600 million figure that the state government had to revisit its commitment, not because of the $60 million that the member for Mayo would have you believe was the be-all and end-all of this decision. Ultimately the minister of the day has committed the $67 million to a new 60-bed facility at Goldsborough Road, at the original site where the land was set aside for this facility. The Jonal Drive facility, which as I said currently has room for 36 offenders, will be used to house the younger offenders in youth detention. I understand that $4 million will immediately be spent to provide a level of improvement to both the Magill facility and the Jonal Drive facility. This is a government that is responding to the needs of the community and is responsive to the obligations of government, and that is why it is making these investments. (Time expired)

Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.