Justice system
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:04): My question is for the Minister for Corrections, Minister Erdogan. Thanks to this government’s regressive changes to bail laws, there has been a 22 per cent increase in adults and a 71 per cent increase in young people on remand in Victorian prisons. To deal with the increased number of people being denied bail, the government has already hired 800 prison staff and will invest $727 million. This money would be better spent addressing the root causes of criminal behaviour, which has been proven to reduce reoffending. Therapeutic support services are essential to this. You cannot fund additional staff without also increasing funding for these services, otherwise the government is setting itself up to fail our most vulnerable. My question is: what level of increased investment will there be for therapeutic support services in our prison system?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:04): I thank Ms Payne for her question in relation to our adult corrections system but also our youth justice system. I think it is a really important question that I have been asked a number of times this week, and I think it is important that we address it. From the outset let me say that I do not want to see anyone come into contact with criminal justice in the first place. As a government we are fully focused on that work, and that is why a lot of the investments we have made start from early on – Best Start, Best Life, early childhood education and primary and secondary education, and – I know those opposite are not big fans – free TAFE. These are all about creating protective factors so that young people do not engage in the criminal justice system in the first place. But when they do we have an obligation to support people and give them the best chance of turning their lives around, and that means supports in health. During my term and my time as minister we have seen a significant increase in health expenditure across our corrections system and rolled out a lot of successful programs, such as the hepatitis program, but we have also invested in education and employment programs. We have been recognised internationally in relation to the work we have done in this space.
The announcement I made on Tuesday was really about that work, because fundamentally a foundational part of having a safe and stable system is investing in your staff – your frontline staff. A lot of those programs that we run successfully in getting people back on track, so to speak, are focused on the work that staff do. They are the ones that speak to people in custody. They are the ones that make sure that programs can be rolled out safely. A lot of that investment is making sure we have got appropriate staff in the appropriate posts, effectively, so that those programs can roll out. I think as part of that funding a significant amount of that will go to an increase and an uplift in the amount we spend on health and the amount we spend on programs, because there will be greater demand. Greater demand means we will need to allocate greater resources. We are looking at that mix very closely as we ramp up, because we are going to scale up throughout the year. We have seen an increase, and it is important that we do it the right way.
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:06): I thank the minister for his response. By way of supplementary, can the minister advise how much in total will be spent on additional corrections staff?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:07): In terms of the $727 million announcement, I can say the majority of that will be spent on increasing the levels of staffing we have, because as a government we have already spent significant amounts on the physical infrastructure, and now we need to scale up. That means having the appropriate staff in those roles, getting people of experience and from different walks of life. In our youth justice system I have seen the transformation in the staff we are able to recruit because we increased the levels of pay and the number of people attracted to those roles. In adult corrections as well I think there will be opportunities. We have some existing vacancies – that has been much discussed – in Aboriginal wellbeing officers and in some of the health services. If people are watching out there, there are going to be opportunities across our corrections system – please apply. You can make a real difference and improve community safety.