Lower budget spend on northern prison in 2021–2022

Sharon Webb

The state government has radically downgraded its 2020–2021 spending estimates on the proposed northern prison in its August annual budget.

This financial year it will spend only $1.5m on the development of the prison, compared with its projection of $7.8m only a year ago.

The apparent slowdown in spending on the prison is even more dramatic when future years’ projections are compared.

Last year the state government predicted it would spend $32.6m on the prison in 2022-2023, this year it says it will spend only $4.8m.

The predicted spending last year for 2023–2024 was $66.5m. This year the government says it will only be $32.6m.

In addition, the government has not changed this year’s budget paper description of the project from the 2020-2021 budget papers’ in light of work done on the Birralee Road site this year.

‘This initiative will commence construction of a new northern prison facility on a crown land site 5.2 kilometres from the Westbury town centre,’ it reads.

‘The facility will ultimately provide accommodation for a variety of security classifications, remand facilities and a women’s facility.

‘The facility will not only relieve pressure on the Risdon facility, but will also be designed to create increased opportunities for prisoners to find meaningful work on release, and importantly provide greater rehabilitation and reintegration prospects, and improved family connections for northern prisoners.’

It appears that in the face of burgeoning prisoner numbers and too few corrections officers in prisons, Corrections Minister Elise Archer has decided there are priorities other than funding development of a northern prison in 2021-2022.

The southern remand centre due to open in early 2022 has been allocated $47.5m this year and $8m next financial year.

The Burnie court upgrade will cost $1.9m this year and $18.1m next year.

But anti-prison groups are hoping the reduced budget allocation indicates the state government is hedging its bets on the northern prison proposal.

‘We believe this is the first sign of a crab walk,’ said the spokesperson for Westbury Region Against the Prison, Linda Poulton.

‘The huge reduction in the allocation for the prison in the budget realistically reflects the money that the Tasmanian government actually proposes to throw at this hopeless proposal in the coming year.

‘All it plans to do is get its planning application ready, then handball the proposal like a hot potato to Meander Valley Council. No reasonable person can imagine the Northern Regional Prison being built on a nature reserve. Our government will essentially need to apply to destroy our State’s threatened species to get this across the line.

‘We are trying to convince Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley that spending even this much money on the proposal is a waste of Tasmanian taxpayers’ money. It’s so absurd that it is already an embarrassment to the State Government.’ 

Locals who believe that a northern regional prison is set to be a replacement for Risdon Prison in Hobart may be interested to see infrastructure upgrades there costing $1.5m this year and $2.5m next year for a shared facility upgrade at that location.