Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:34): (96) I have another question for the Minister for Corrections. However, on this occasion it is with his youth justice hat on. Minister, the Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre was completed in June last year. However, I am advised that there is yet to be a single person housed in this 133-bed facility, yet taxpayers are forking out for maintenance and security staff to monitor the site. Minister, how much are taxpayers spending each week on this empty facility?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:34): I thank Dr Bach for his question about our Cherry Creek facility. It is an important facility that he would know was a strong recommendation from the Armytage-Ogloff report into our youth justice system. It recommended a standalone modern facility, a multidisciplinary facility, that brings together a number of areas from youth detention to health services to training and skills – and, yes, culturally appropriate spaces. I have been out at Cherry Creek, and the staff there are very keen to start. They are very hardworking and looking forward to bringing young people into their care in due course. Our government has actually outlined the time frame for Cherry Creek, if you read the press releases and the reporting, and I think the Premier was asked about this a few weeks ago. But nonetheless I will share that later this year there will be young people at Cherry Creek, and I look forward to them going there because a modern facility to house them is right.
In regard to the specific question, you asked about financials or, to be precise, about the cost et cetera. In terms of the costs of our youth justice system, all of this stuff will be reported in the usual way. We have a whole-of-government financial management framework, and it will be reported during that period as per normal.
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:36): All of this stuff will be reported in the normal way. All right. By way of supplementary – and it may be, based on the minister’s response, that the Premier in one of his press conferences, which potentially I missed, has already answered this, and if that is the case, having it clarified by the minister now would be very helpful: when? Perhaps I could ask you to be a little bit more specific than ‘later this year’. When will Cherry Creek house its first inmate?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:36): Thank you, Dr Bach. I felt like in my substantive I answered; I said later this year. But I think it is an important point, because in your substantive preamble you went on about the time it takes to operationalise such a facility. Those opposite have probably been out of government for so long that they do not know how long it takes to actually operationalise such a major infrastructure project. It takes time. You have the physical construction, then you train people up and you hire people and then you operationalise it. So of course it is going to take time. We have hired a number of people already. The leadership is in place. We continue to hire more people, and it will be in operation later this year. I have given you a time frame. That is the announcement: later this year. In 2023 it will be up and running.