Wednesday, 6 March 2024

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:46): (452) My question is for the Minister for Corrections. We would all be aware of the organised crime war that is happening at the moment, with arson attacks all around the state related to the illegal tobacco and vaping market. According to Parliamentary Budget Office research commissioned by my office, currently there are about 400,000 vapers in Victoria, comprising a market of about half a billion dollars. According to the federal government, they are launching a crackdown and there has been extra funding for policing of this. In fact in New South Wales we have seen them start policing this. Even yesterday there was a video of a 13-year-old boy who was arrested for possessing a vape. It would appear that the Victorian government shares this view on the legality of possession of vapes – on the Victorian government website vic.gov.au they talk about it. My question is: what is the minister doing to expand the prison capacity for the influx of potentially a proportion of these 400,000 vapers?

 Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:47): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question and his interest in my portfolios. I do note that matters of who ends up in custodial settings are not matters that the Minister for Corrections is in charge of; these are decisions of independent judiciaries. In terms of what is happening in the community, as one of the justice ministers, I am very concerned. The highest priority of our government is community safety, so we have a range of operations in place. But in terms of prevention of crime and the vaping issues and the tobacco issues you have raised, I think they are more appropriately answered by the Minister for Police about the actions that police are taking to –

David Limbrick: On a point of order, President, my question was around expansion of corrections facilities.

The PRESIDENT: I will call the minister back to the question. I am a bit concerned that it might be hypothetical, but I will call the minister.

Enver ERDOGAN: Thank you, Mr Limbrick. In terms of our investments in our corrections infrastructure, we have been very clear in this place that we know corrections facilities are a crucial part of our justice system. They are places where the community is kept safe and where people have an opportunity to address their offending behaviour. We have made record investments in not only the facilities – and we do have capacity because we have made significant investments in our facilities; I will get to that – but the key is about making sure when people do enter our systems we have employment programs, educational programs and obviously pathways to employment through our partnership with TAFE to make sure that when people do exit the system they have a future and are able to stop their offending behaviour and address it. That is what our prison system is designed to do.

In terms of the current capacity, in Victoria we do have a positive outcome: the number of people in our corrections system has actually decreased over about the last four years by about 20 per cent, so we do have additional capacity. But also we have made significant investments, so we have additional capacity. I have talked about our prison infill program, where we are kind of commissioning out all the facilities with newer beds and newer units, and we have our Western Plains facility. If the system needs extra capacity, we have futureproofed the system because we have made the investments.

David Limbrick: President, I have no supplementary. I am sure the Victorian vapers will be alarmed by these investments.