The Territory’s powerful resident king, Member for Nelson , Gerry Wood , who could order the execution of the Henderson government , if he so wished , recently expressed annoyance with the NT News. In doing so, he invited the paper's editor to experience a wild Friday night out with sandflies, mud larks , petrol and rev - heads , roaring cars and heavy traffic . Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Wood said that there were times when you read an article in the News and thought it was “ a load of codswallop”. While a letter could be written to refute the piece, the paper, generally speaking, would not publish a missive from a politician , especially if it was long. So he took the opportunity in an adjournment debate to refute the News editorial of October 14, 2009 , headed NEW PRISON IS NEEDED , which stated the Berrrimah Gaol would be expanded rather than replaced by a modern state of the art complex at Weddell , thus losing another site for perfect housing , all to accommodate Mr Wood , one man with no qualifications in correctional services or planning, against a platoon of experts.
Furthermore, it said by Wood blocking the new $300 million institution at Weddell, he would cost the next generation of Territorians hundreds of millions of dollars to put right. The editorial also declared Berrimah would be the centre of a Darwin –Palmerston city and it would be inappropriate to have a prison in the centre of that conurbation . Instead, the Berrimah site would be ideal for a large parkland estate fringed by commercial buildings.
“Wow !” was the MLA’s response to these “fighting words”. Taking the editor to task over the rosy picture of the proposed 700 block Berrimah Goal farm site converted into a parkland estate ringed by commercial buildings, Wood said there were no commercial buildings ringing Berrimah, they were industrial buildings. BHP , Bridgestone Tyres, Reece Plumbing and an extractive mining facility nearby would not describe themselves as commercial entities. ”I would challenge the editor of the NT News to go down on a Friday night when the drags are operating, or the mud races are operating, go down into the valley and tell me he would like to live there, amongst the sandflies, next door to the four lane Tiger Brennan Drive. If he tells me that is suitable, I will go heave,.” he told the House. While Wood did not claim to be an expert, he gave the editor a detailed account of his extensive study into correctional facilities in Australia and the US and his long experience in local government
In 2004, he had spoken about low security prisons, prison industries, work camps, and prison farms. In 2005 he introduced a motion saying the government should investigate, independently, or in partnership, constructing and managing in appropriate regional areas of the Northern Territory, low-security correctional and rehabilitation centres.These could be used , but not exclusively, for juvenile offenders, low-risk prisoners, and people affected by substance abuse. Even back then he was talking about places for people affected by alcohol and had been through the revolving door going to places where they could get treatment and help in a reasonably pleasant environment like a small farm. This was a concept supported by the CLP . Continuing, he said that in the NT " our Indigenous brothers and sisters” formed 80 per cent of the prisoners. Half of these were in for six months or less.
As alternatives to prison, he supported prison farms . Katherine would be an ideal place for one and it would assist the local economy as well . The Minister for Correctional Services, Terry McCarthy, was a “ great supporter” of work camps, he told the House. "” We could also have mobile work camps, working out in national parks, working out on cattle stations. We should have more people doing community orders for those short term one month in prison cases.”
