The NSW Opposition has slammed Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong for his decision to hand over control of Junee Correctional Facility to the heavily unionised Corrective Services NSW.
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Mr Chanthivong was grilled over the move during a Budget Estimates hearing today.\u00a0
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Shadow Minister for Corrections Mark Taylor said the Minister needs to come clean on his back door union deal that will result in a $15 million hit to the Budget.
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\u201cGEO Group has successfully managed the Junee Correctional Centre for over 30 years, as evidenced by the latest extension to their current contract,\u201d Mr Taylor said.
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\u201cJunee Correctional Centre is one of the major employers in the Riverina region, where staff live and work locally.\u201d
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\u201cTheir extended families are well established in local schools, sporting clubs, or working in local businesses. These families will be torn apart as they are replaced by unionised staff from Sydney with no local community connection.\u201d
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\u201cThe Minister has not even visited Junee Correctional Centre. It\u2019s like the Minister is wearing a Public Services Association issued ankle bracelet, and every time it buzzes, he rings the PSA head office for instructions.\u201d
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\u201cIt\u2019s understandable people right across our State are saying they have voter remorse. The Minns Labor Government promises one thing before the election and does the exact opposite after.\u201d
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\u201cThere is a pattern here of looking after your mates rather than the community. In this case, people will lose their jobs, union officials win, and the NSW Community will pay.\u201d
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Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke said that the decision is looking murkier by the day.
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\u201cEither the Minister is not across his brief, or he was deliberately avoiding questions around the government\u2019s decision to take over the running of the Junee Correctional Centre,\u201d Ms Cooke said.
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\u201cThe Minster was unable to provide any credible rationale for the decision, and instead hid behind technical jargon to justify what appears to be a highly dubious move from this government.
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\u201cBy his own admission, the Minister failed to consult the community about his decision, hasn\u2019t even visited the Junee Correctional Centre and failed to commit to come to Junee and speak face-to-face with those that are impacted directly on the ground,\u201d Ms Cooke said.
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\u201cWhen pressed on whether there would be any job losses, the Minister again danced around the question, which as a local member, concerns me greatly.\u201d
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\u201cThe Minister acknowledged the financial contributions the current operator GEO Group has provided to the Junee community over the years, but was unable to guarantee that the government would be able to provide a similar level of support going forward.\u201d
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\u201cThis is simply not good enough. The Minister must come out of hiding, clear his diary, and make every effort to get to Junee as soon as possible, front up and provide the vital answers the community deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NSW Opposition has slammed Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong for his decision to hand over control of Junee Correctional Facility to the heavily unionised Corrective Services NSW.\u00a0Mr Chanthivong was grilled over the move during a Budget Estimates hearing today.\u00a0\u00a0Shadow Minister for Corrections Mark Taylor said the Minister needs to come clean on his back door … Continue reading “Corrections Minister locked up with union mates”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23884,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883\/revisions\/23884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}