Page 2145 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 3 August 2021
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Headline after headline of the problems plaguing our prisons paint an alarming picture of just how bad this minister’s performance is. Madam Speaker, please allow me to share just a few. “Canberra prison riot at the AMC as disturbance prompts emergency response”. “Poor discipline and violence inside AMC has guards at breaking point: whistleblower”. “Fires lit during AMC riot forces guards to use gas”. “Confrontation between officers and 28 prisoners at Canberra’s jail”. “Prison riot caused by drunk inmates”. “Canberra prison staff angry over lack of tools and training, union says”. “Emergency services called to another fire at AMC, second incident in a week”. “Less than 10 per cent of prison staff effectively trained to handle riot—inspector”. “Confusion over who was in charge at Canberra prison—report”. “Investigation into prison praises staff, criticises ex-commissioner”. “ACT Corrective Services Commissioner suddenly dumped from role”. “Ex-ACT prison boss bags $327k role as riot report tabled”. “Canberra prison guards not respected or heard—union”. “Guards at breaking point—whistleblower”. “Women forced to walk past their domestic violence sexual assault perpetrators in AMC”. “Prisoner upkeep cost in the AMC highest in the nation”. “Centre to help prisoners reintegrate into society failing a ‘running joke’, AMC detainees say”. “Aboriginal women strip searched in view of male detainees to be probed by Human Rights Commission”. “ACT Indigenous women strip searched twice as often at the AMC”. “Prison warned Camry not fit for transport two weeks before escape”. “‘Like a Hollywood Movie’. Woman rams Jeep into police car to free inmate being transported”. “AMC inmate mistakenly released from jail”. “ACT Government blames human error for mistakenly releasing prisoner”. “It’s not sustainable. Overtime hours triple for Canberra’s prison guards”. “Assaults on corrections officers increase five-fold”. “Why can’t the toxic prison stay out of the news?”
The territory’s longest-serving Chief Minister, Labor’s own Jon Stanhope, has raised time and time again the significant issues with the management of our prisons. In relation to this government’s rejection of our call for an independent inquiry into systemic racism earlier this year, Mr Stanhope said:
The Minister, it appears, has apparently chosen to not believe the woman’s claims about her treatment including, it would seem, her belief that racism is an issue within the AMC.
Corrections Minister Gentleman, as spokesperson for the ALP and the Greens, has in both words and actions effectively conveyed that they don’t believe her. They don’t believe that she is telling the truth or alternatively they don’t think her experience, or the concerns expressed by Julie Tongs and the broader Aboriginal community about the pernicious presence of institutional racism in the ACT are serious enough to warrant a detailed and independent response.
Again, I assume, Labor and the Greens opposed the inquiry for political reasons. They were simply not prepared to risk the Liberal Party being recognised for championing a progressive cause.
The only reasonable alternative is, of course, that they don’t care.
Coming from the Chief Minister who opened the Alexander Maconochie Centre in 2008, it is quite telling that he would publish such damning comments on the
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