Mr RIOLI - 1998-02-19
Is it true that, in the last year, 13 prison officers based in Alice Springs have resigned from the service? Will the minister confirm that 16 serving prison officers have applied for positions in the police force, most of them in desperation as they seek to leave the Department of Correctional Services? Will he confirm that morale among staff at the Alice Springs jail is at an all-time low? What is he doing to change that?
Ms Martin: Come on, Eric. You are across all this.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is quite amusing to pick up the interjection from the member for Fannie Bay. She said something earlier about my being a lazy minister. I noted when she was the shadow minister for correctional services that the only time she visited the Alice Springs jail was during its construction. Once it was occupied, she never went near the place. And I have been told by 3 or 4 people that, whenever they walk by the office of the member for Arnhem, he is sitting there with the door open, fast asleep. He has the nerve to say that I am lazy.
I have no idea whether people are leaving Correctional Services to join the police force. If they are, I wish them well. I suggest to members opposite that, if they are, they are probably doing so because a police officer in the Northern Territory is more highly paid than a correctional services officer. As for resignations, I have not been advised of any sudden increase in the number of people leaving Correctional Services over the past few years. I acknowledge, and I have acknowledged previously in this House, that there is industrial unrest at the prison in Alice Springs. I suggest that half of this unrest is created by Mark Wheeler, the Labor Party's failed candidate for MacDonnell, who is trying to represent members of his union in Alice Springs and obviously is doing a hopeless job because they do not seem to be winning too much these days.
Ms Martin: Come on, Eric. You are across all this.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is quite amusing to pick up the interjection from the member for Fannie Bay. She said something earlier about my being a lazy minister. I noted when she was the shadow minister for correctional services that the only time she visited the Alice Springs jail was during its construction. Once it was occupied, she never went near the place. And I have been told by 3 or 4 people that, whenever they walk by the office of the member for Arnhem, he is sitting there with the door open, fast asleep. He has the nerve to say that I am lazy.
I have no idea whether people are leaving Correctional Services to join the police force. If they are, I wish them well. I suggest to members opposite that, if they are, they are probably doing so because a police officer in the Northern Territory is more highly paid than a correctional services officer. As for resignations, I have not been advised of any sudden increase in the number of people leaving Correctional Services over the past few years. I acknowledge, and I have acknowledged previously in this House, that there is industrial unrest at the prison in Alice Springs. I suggest that half of this unrest is created by Mark Wheeler, the Labor Party's failed candidate for MacDonnell, who is trying to represent members of his union in Alice Springs and obviously is doing a hopeless job because they do not seem to be winning too much these days.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016