Queensland’s Auditor-General has delivered a damning report into Labor’s handling of the Borallon Correctional Centre reopening, with taxpayers set to fork out millions of extra dollars each year to publicly run the facility.
Shadow Corrections Minister Jarrod Bleijie said today’s Auditor-General report into the management of privately operated prisons found the former LNP Government’s plan to privately run Borallan could have saved tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
“The private provision of the Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland Correctional Centres has saved taxpayers around $55 million over six years to 2014,” Mr Bleijie said.
“We could have seen further savings for Queenslanders under the LNP’s plan to reopen Borallon Correctional Centre, but Labor’s mismanagement saw the facility sit dormant for months and stall the creation of 200 jobs.
“For Corrections Minister Bill Byrne to say everything is progressing as planned is a clear indication he is not across his portfolio and that the Palaszczuk Labor Government is prepared to hold back Queensland jobs.
“We know many Queensland prisons are reaching capacity and so it doesn’t make any sense to stall a fully-funded facility that is ready to open, would boost jobs and ease pressure on the prison system.”
Mr Bleijie said the Auditor-General’s report found private operators of Queensland prisons could reduce medical costs by up to 60 per cent.
“It’s 65 per cent more expensive to run prisons publicly, but Jo-Ann Miller refused to budge on her ill-conceived plan to publicly run Borallon, which was one of just many bungles during her short time as Minister,” he said.
“As the former Minister showed Queenslanders, Labor can’t be trusted to properly run Queensland’s corrections system.
“The LNP Government had a solid plan to invest $61 million to manage prisoner growth for Queensland’s correctional centres.”
