Minister Archer in their sights

Photo by Mike Moores

Minister for Corrections, the Hon Elise Archer MP, returned to Westbury to attend a public meeting to discuss the State Government decision to place the new Northern Regional Prison on a site close to the town. Hostility and cynicism dominated the meeting, which was attended by many local residents who are opposed to the State Government’s plans or angry that the decision was made without consulting the community beforehand.

By Sharon Webb

THE STATE Government will survey all Meander Valley residents on the electoral roll about Westbury as the site for a second Tasmanian prison, Minister for Corrections Elise Archer told a rowdy public meeting in December

The mailout and phone survey will be part of the government’s social and economic impact report being prepared by SGS Economics.

The public meeting attended by around 300 people gave Minister Archer the opportunity to emphasise again that no final decision on the prison location had yet been made – and that any prison run by the Hodgman government would not be privatised.

But in a Westbury Town Hall visually dominated by signs saying ‘Dept of Joke’ and ‘Still no meaningful consultation, just spin’, hostility and cynicism were palpable.

People directed hostility not just at the State Government but at Meander Valley councillors (many of whom attended), and former mayor (now MHA) Mark Shelton. Many of the residents believe the council and Mark Shelton supplied information about the site through the government’s expression of interest process, contrary to residents’ interests. One resident held a sign saying ‘Council has sacrificed Westbury’.

When a woman questioned the impact on Brand Tasmania of a prison ‘smack in the middle of the route to the Western Tiers’, the minister replied that the site had been submitted to government – to one man’s shout of ‘Hang your heads’, directed at the Meander Valley councillors.

And when Minister Archer sheltered Mark Shelton from answering a question about his views on the prison, several people yelled ‘Shame on Shelton’.

Common themes among locals questioning Minister Archer were around residents’ security, the effect on tourism and the area’s economy and possible alternative sites.

Lesley Pedley said her son, a prison warden in Derby WA, had his car smashed up and three home break-ins.

‘He told me, “Mum, if you get a prison there it will be the sorriest day of your life. It’s not the inmates you need to worry about, it’s the outsiders coming into the town,” ’ she said.

Another resident mentioned recent damage from Ashley Detention Centre inmates’ demonstrating, asking if the government couldn’t control children, would they be able to control adult prisoners.

Hostility and cynicism dominate meeting

The Minister dismissed

his comment as irrelevant because Ashley is run by the Department of Health and Human Services, not the Department of Justice.

In reply to a question about potential jobs and investment loss if the prison stripped Valley Central of its current five businesses, the Minister replied that she had spoken with them.

she had spoken with them. ‘I accept that it’s relevant and will take it into account. Independent assessors are looking at it,’ she said.

looking at it,’ she said. Concerns about property values emerged, with one woman describing Westbury residents as 70 per cent owneroccupiers. Another commented on the low property values of the Victorian prison location, Broadmeadows.

Phil Giles told Minister Archer that if a prison was built on the Birralee Rd site, he would leave Westbury, followed by others.

‘Towns taking on prisons get an initial economic spike but when the prison is in place the economic benefits level out and people begin to leave,’ he said.

Robert Bryant asked why Westbury was the preferred site when there were ‘good options’

‘The reason we don’t want it is the element it will bring to Westbury,’ he said.

To loud jeers, Elise Archer replied that any potential sites next to a neighbourhood were therefore zoned residential.

Harvey Gee commented: ‘There is oodles of crown land in Tasmania, out of sight of tourist routes.

‘When I asked you about this your answer was that the Greens have it all locked up.

‘I put it to you, it’s only locked up when it suits the government!’
But although lone questioner Leigh Watts supported the prison, the meeting’s main attitude seemed to be that consultation with residents was fake, entirely focused on the government being able to say it had been done.

Frances Shaw said she and her husband Glen, born and bred in Westbury, working in Launceston, found it impossible to get an allocated time to talk to the Minister and needed to leave work early for the public meeting.

‘Why, when the public are so obviously against it, is all the rhetoric about consultation – but you’re going to go ahead?’ she asked.

‘Why, when the public are so obviously against it, is all the rhetoric about consultation – but you’re going to go ahead?’ she asked.

prison site was a done deal. When one woman said residents were not being respected because the consultation was ‘around the wrong way’, the Minister said she was sorry.

Minister said she was sorry. Many people in the room agreed with her. ‘It doesn’t feel right over here. We want to know who we can trust.

After the meeting many people remained, standing in clumps, talking.

clumps, talking. Minister Archer left immediately, escorted by Northern Tasmanian Development Corporation CEO Mark Baker and the director of Prisons, Ian Thomas, both of whom were silent throughout the meeting.