Mrs PADGHAM-PURICH - 1995-05-23
Before negotiations are completed for the federal government to take over Gunn Point Prison Farm to house illegal immigrants, is the minister looking at new sites for a replacement prison farm? If so, where are these sites and, before making his final decision, will he take advice from officers of the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and the Power and Water Authority?
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, in real terms, negotiations with the federal government over Gunn Point have not progressed any further than the point they had reached the last time I spoke in the House about this matter. Currently, Gunn Point Prison Farm is being operated with a minimum of prisoners. Some 50 are on site. That is considered a satisfactory number to keep the primary produce areas operating at an efficient level to supply the prison system with produce, whether horticulture or livestock.
A number of alternative sites have been examined. No decision has been made as yet, primarily because there is no need to make such a decision until the federal government accepts or rejects the terms that the Northern Territory government has offered for the lease of the Gunn Point facility as a detention centre for illegal immigrants. If it accepts, as we have always said, those terms include an amount of money to enable us to establish an equivalent prison farm. One of the sites that I favour personally at present is the agriculture area at Berrimah. Quite a large area there is utilised already for the growing of crops and some experimentation in the horticultural process, if I can describe it as that. There is ample open space across the gravel track from that facility to enable us to construct a prison farm there. There are obvious advantages in having a prison farm at Berrimah. The land is available to the jail already. From the point of view of prison management, it would be an excellent idea to be able to utilise officers from the main jail at the prison farm as they are needed. Also, it would increase the capacity for and availability of prison visits by family members etc.
The situation at Gunn Point, including the negotiations with the federal government, has not changed. We are awaiting the Commonwealth's response to the package that we have put to it.
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Page 573
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, in real terms, negotiations with the federal government over Gunn Point have not progressed any further than the point they had reached the last time I spoke in the House about this matter. Currently, Gunn Point Prison Farm is being operated with a minimum of prisoners. Some 50 are on site. That is considered a satisfactory number to keep the primary produce areas operating at an efficient level to supply the prison system with produce, whether horticulture or livestock.
A number of alternative sites have been examined. No decision has been made as yet, primarily because there is no need to make such a decision until the federal government accepts or rejects the terms that the Northern Territory government has offered for the lease of the Gunn Point facility as a detention centre for illegal immigrants. If it accepts, as we have always said, those terms include an amount of money to enable us to establish an equivalent prison farm. One of the sites that I favour personally at present is the agriculture area at Berrimah. Quite a large area there is utilised already for the growing of crops and some experimentation in the horticultural process, if I can describe it as that. There is ample open space across the gravel track from that facility to enable us to construct a prison farm there. There are obvious advantages in having a prison farm at Berrimah. The land is available to the jail already. From the point of view of prison management, it would be an excellent idea to be able to utilise officers from the main jail at the prison farm as they are needed. Also, it would increase the capacity for and availability of prison visits by family members etc.
The situation at Gunn Point, including the negotiations with the federal government, has not changed. We are awaiting the Commonwealth's response to the package that we have put to it.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016