Papalia confirms WA government eyeing Bullsbrook white elephant to ease prison pressure

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West Australian Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia has confirmed the state is seriously considering converting the white elephant Bullsbrook quarantine facility into a prison.

The $400 million facility was completed in 2022 but has sat idle since as the COVID pandemic subsided and travellers no longer needed specialised facilities to isolate.

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia.Hamish Hastie

It has long been touted by the opposition as a potential tool to help ease the homelessness crisis by housing rough sleepers.

However, that idea was shot down last week by the homelessness sector’s peak advocacy body ShelterWA, which said it was not suitable for people who often had complex needs.

Papalia is grappling with an extraordinary increase in the WA prison population, with remand facilities like Hakea having to triple-bunk inmates, triggering concerns from the Prison Officers’ Union of a powder-keg scenario.

On Tuesday, he reiterated Shelter WA’s position while confirming the state government was interested in the Bullsbrook centre.

“Shelter WA said that site is not suitable for rough sleepers because it’s in the middle of nowhere, effectively. Conversely, that might make it a good place for a prison,” he said.

Papalia said the state had recently experienced a 38 per cent growth in the prison population, largely because of inmates on remand for family and domestic violence offences.

“People say unprecedented a lot, but that is really unprecedented. It’s an incredible challenge, and it means that we’ve got a range of measures we’ve got to take,” he said.

“That results in a backlog right through the entire system, so things back up from all the way from minimum all the way back up to maximum.

“So if you can potentially get other alternatives, and get greater capacity at any part of in any part of the system that can help.”

Bullsbrook quarantine facility - Centre for National ResilienceMultiplex

Papalia said the state was working through a prison infrastructure plan to bring additional accommodation into the system, with long-term options still being considered.

Any attempt to take over the facility would be complicated by its ownership by the federal Department of Finance and recent interest from the Australian Federal Police to use it as a training facility.

Papalia would not reveal where the discussions were at.

“If there are discussions, they’ll have to remain private until such time as we’ve concluded any discussions,” he said.

WA Prison Officers’ Union secretary Andy Smith told Radio 6PR the union initially suggested the government look at Bullsbrook, but had determined it wasn’t suitable.

“It’s designed to give people ... somewhere to live, it’s not designed to keep people that have been locked up and don’t want to be in there,” he said.

Smith said it wasn’t just the external walls that would need to be upgrades, but every internal wall as well.

“It would be trashed in a short period of time,” he said.

Smith also said the state didn’t have enough low-security prisoners to fill the facility.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Adam Hort said the state government’s priorities were wrong.

“Just a week ago, we saw the WA Labor government essentially poo-poo the idea that this facility could be used for crisis accommodation, and now we’re seeing them suggest that it should be used as a prison,” he said.

“I think it contradicts themselves, really. Essentially, they’ve said it’s not an appropriate location for people to live, and now they are essentially exploring something 10 times more complicated.”

Hort said the crisis facing the state government on prison population was one of its own making and that they should have built a new prison to keep up with demand.

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Hamish Hastie is WAtoday's state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.