Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Corrections system

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (12:15): (976) My question is for the Minister for Corrections. Minister, the Attorney-General has said your proposed new bail laws will not be introduced until there is enough room in the state’s prisons and it is safe to do so. Minister, have you discussed the planned closure of Port Phillip Prison with her and the impact that this may have on the commencement of the so-called toughest bail laws in the nation?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:15): I thank Mrs Deeming for that really important question. Yesterday the Attorney-General and the police minister together with the Premier announced our further tough new bail laws that we had promised and that we are committed to bringing to this chamber in due course. I think it reflects growing community concern about people whilst they are out on bail committing further serious repeat offending, and I think it is an important justice initiative that this government has committed to and is delivering.

As Minister for Corrections, I have always said I do not decide who enters into our system, but when they do, we have a commitment to providing an environment that is obviously holding people to account and addressing their behaviour but also providing an environment that is rehabilitative where possible. In terms of our corrections system and where it is placed, we are closing the Port Phillip Prison, but I am also proud to announce that we have opened Western Plains, a new, modern state-of-the-art maximum-security prison, which is in fact larger than the Port Phillip facility. At this stage there are no plans to reopen Port Phillip, and we are in the process of scaling up our system. I always talk about the ability to scale up and down as required. At this stage we are scaling up. We have seen that our bail reforms have meant an increase in people on remand, and that will of course continue if the second stage and tranche of our reforms are implemented. We want to do that in a safe and careful way to ensure we can maintain the high standards that we hold in Victoria.

Most recently, last week, I had the opportunity to attend the corrections ministers meeting in Sydney with corrections ministers from across the country, and I am proud to inform the house that I am in fact the longest serving corrections minister in the nation and in fact the longest serving corrections minister in this government. We are leading the way in many areas. We have the highest engagement in employment programs. We have the second-lowest recidivism rate. We have the second-highest engagement in education. We have invested in a modern, effective, humane system, and we will continue to do that work. We are turning beds back on line, beds that obviously we switched off in terms of running an efficient system when we had lower numbers, but we are turning them on. I want to thank the Treasurer for her $727 million investment in community safety. The majority of those funds will be for hiring new staff. We have been quite successful and I know the envy of many other jurisdictions with our $8000 sign-on bonus to recruit new staff across our prisons. I did say Western Plains will be open in the middle of this year, and it is now open and it is working very effectively.

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (12:18): Seeing you have already opened this extra prison and it is working very effectively and you have done all these wonderful things, have you been made aware of exactly what the number of beds remaining to be opened is so that these bail laws can actually come into effect?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:18): I think in the end we are seeing already the first stage of our bail reforms taking effect, and we are opening up more beds – we already have about a 10 per cent increase in the custodial facilities from what we had last year – but we are going to do that in a safe way. We have got new squads training as we speak. We want to make sure we implement it in a safe way so we can keep our high standards. We have committed to 1000 extra beds. That was the announcement I made last month.

Moira Deeming: On a point of order, President, it is a yes or no question.

The PRESIDENT: I thought it asked for a quantum, which the minister was getting to, but I could be wrong. I thought it was a question about a quantum. I think the minister was getting there.

Enver ERDOGAN: We are in a good position. We have the physical capacity, and now we are hiring more staff so we can have the right people in the right posts to do that as safely as possible for the safety of our staff but also for those in custody. We are well placed to have the beds in place when these bail laws commence.