Page 165 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 April 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
is a question concerning the Aboriginality or otherwise of that person. So, while we would like to say that we have never had an Aboriginal death in custody, there is a question about one such death which did occur. To the best of my knowledge, the question has not been resolved one way or the other. Regardless of whether the person was of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent or not, the task that is before us is to prevent deaths in custody and to take all of the sorts of actions that I outlined yesterday in order to ensure that that is the case.
MR HUMPHRIES: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I appreciate that the Minister does not have detailed information about the rates of incarceration, but is there any general or impressionistic view of the level of incarceration of Aboriginal people in the ACT? Have we any evidence at all that there is a problem with this in the ACT?
MS FOLLETT: The rate of incarceration in the ACT, as I said, is something that we do not have very accurate data on, and we will be looking to collect that data. In the absence of accurate figures I do not like to say whether I have an impression or not. I think that that would be either to reinforce a stereotype that people might already have or to deny that we have a problem in the ACT. We do have a significant population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT.
We have every reason to suppose that those people in the ACT face the same degree of difficulty that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face everywhere else in the country, and we need as a government, and indeed as a community, to address those problems. I do not want to take a guess at what might be the rate of incarceration, because I think that that is not useful. The task now is to ensure that the community have the facilities and the support that they need, as Mr Moore interjected, in the interests of empowering the Aboriginal community itself to avoid these problems.
Bus Shelters
MS SZUTY: My question without notice is for the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. Could the Minister please comment on the recent repainting of bus shelters in North Belconnen which was apparently being carried out on the weekend by either Department of Urban Services workmen or contractors? Most of these bus shelters were originally decorated with artwork by students attending local schools, as part of a bus shelter painting competition. Is it the intention of the Minister to place precedence on the painting of bus shelters by the Department of Urban Services or private contractors ahead of the artwork of local school students?
MR CONNOLLY: I am not aware of the specific incidents in Belconnen. If Ms Szuty could give me rough locations, I will have them investigated. We are very firmly behind the bus shelter painting programs. What does happen from time to time is that, if they were painted some time ago and are starting to fade, or have been attacked with graffiti, it is not uncommon for them to be repainted in a plain colour almost as a base for a future schoolchildren painting exercise, which we are very enthusiastically behind. In relation to the shelters painted, I will have the matter investigated and provide an answer to Ms Szuty.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .