Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The number of prisoners in our nation's jails continues to reach record highs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that over 42,000 prisoners were in full-time custody in March of this year—that's an increase of 38 per cent, or 11,646 prisoners, over the past five years. We all know that putting people in prison costs money. It costs governments money, it costs the Australian people money and it costs in terms of them being incubators, unfortunately, for re-offending.

The largest increase in prisoners has been in remand, Indigenous and women prisoners. In my electorate of Kingsford Smith, we have Long Bay jail, which is a maximum security prison hosting a sizeable population of prisoners, about 1,400 to 1,500. Unfortunately, too many of those prisoners are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians. Each year, I go to Long Bay jail for NAIDOC Week celebrations and, unfortunately, every year I go, the number of Aboriginal prisoners in Long Bay jail has increased. It's obvious from having conversations with them that many of them lack basic literacy and numeracy skills.

When we talk about Closing the Gap, we know that this is an area where Aboriginal Australians lag behind the rest of the country. That's why education must be one of the key components for helping to reduce the cycle of re-offending that comes with putting people in prison. In particular, prison education programs with qualified teachers play a vital role. Yet in 2016, the New South Wales Liberal government cut 31 education and teaching positions at Long Bay jail. They got rid of most of the qualified, experienced and passionate teachers—committed staff who'd made dedicated contributions to the rehabilitation of inmates. I just cannot see how this decision can be good for anyone in society—to take education out of prisons.

I was at Long Bay recently for NAIDOC Week celebrations and the chaplain there told me that there are no education programs at all left in Long Bay Prison. That's because it's been outsourced to a provider, BSI Learning, and that's been a disaster at Long Bay jail, because there are no education programs. I don't know what the provider BSI Learning are doing, but they're not doing anything in Long Bay prison. Short-term cost-cutting decisions mean our community ends up paying a much higher price in the long run and it means that inmates can't get the kinds of skills that help them get ready for life outside of jail and that help them get job-ready and to reintegrate into our community. It's another lousy decision from a lousy New South Wales government that's hurting our community. (Time expired)