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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 2864 ..

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Yes, it is true. Ms Rebecca Lamb of MOTH, Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead, has chosen to resign from the Interim Tuggeranong Homestead Community Authority rather than sign a confidentiality agreement. The agreements were required to be signed simply as the homestead authority will be judging submissions that are put to it for the future of the homestead. These will involve a master plan for the homestead. It is a standard practice to do this.

MR CORBELL: I ask a supplementary question. Is it not the case that the member of the community authority was invited by the then Minister for Planning, Mr Humphries, in February this year to take up a position on the Interim Tuggeranong Homestead Community Authority as a representative of MOTH, Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead? Under whose direction was the code of conduct and confidentiality developed and implemented? What was the reason for adopting the approach you have adopted?

MR SMYTH: Yes, people were invited to represent different groups on the interim authority. The purpose for signing the confidentiality agreement is that we have called for expressions of interest. People will put forward their personal plans, their confidential plans, their commercial-in-confidence plans that they would like to see go forward for the Tuggeranong Homestead site. It is entirely appropriate that these plans be subject to confidentiality until a winner is announced.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question to the Chief Minister concerns policies for the advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. It is the same question that I asked yesterday, but I expect that she has had the time to consider an answer or will have had a question time briefing prepared for her. So here goes. I refer to the references in the annual reports of the Community Advocate to the considerable overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people detained in Quamby.

Ms Carnell: If you are asking the same question, you will get the same answer.

MR WOOD: I did not get an answer. My question is about policies towards Aborigines and Islanders. What actions are being taken to improve those social circumstances in the ACT which bring about such high rates of detention? The question is about social circumstances. I could have raised it not mentioning those high rates of detention. That is only an indicator of the problem to which I refer.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I still come back to the basic premise of the question, the high rate of detentions, which is Mr Humphries' area. Maybe the best way to do it is to respond in two parts. First, I would like to address the statistics that Mr Wood spoke about yesterday, those in the ACT Community Advocate's annual report regarding incarceration of indigenous youth at Quamby. Secondly, I will discuss the action taken by government in addressing the social circumstances of the ACT indigenous community.

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