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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2266 ..

MR CORNWELL: It is relevant, Mr Speaker, because I have no doubt that some of these people will require visitors to visit them in a prison somewhere in this area, just as people will ultimately be visiting them here in the ACT prison.

I do support this report. I think it is appropriate that these 42 recommendations have been brought down by this committee. I would remind members of the committee’s name—and that is “community services and social equity”. I believe that, in this report, we have lived up to the committee’s requirement to develop and support social equity in this territory.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (11.02): I will make a few comments about the report. I welcome the report and I welcome what Mr Hargreaves said in his closing speech. He said, “Now is the time for the ACT to lead the country.” Indeed it is. I congratulate the members of the committee on the 42 recommendations. I think they shine a light on the direction the government should be taking in establishing a corrections system here in the ACT.

I just want to remind the government that in their ACT Labor policy—Labor’s ACTION Plan for ACT Corrections—it said:

Labor will review the support services to families of incarcerated people and develop an action plan to provide that support.

I think it is important to read the next paragraph as well. It says:

Labor will review post release support programs to test the efficacy of existing programs and to identify barriers to successful restoration and opportunities to combat recidivism.

I think the committee has picked, in the 42 recommendations, a large number of things that could be done to honour those commitments of the government. There is the rub, I guess. This is a committee of the Assembly doing the work of the government—because the government has truly ignored corrections in this term.

In recommendations 1, 6, 8 and 10 the committee recommends the establishment of programs and pilot projects, and review of those pilot projects, so we can get a handle on what is happening—particularly the effect on families—and design a system that minimises the impact on families and increases the chances of people being successfully rehabilitated in the community. That is fabulous. Recommendation 14 is important. It reads:

The Committee recommends that the Government include parent education programs in the core set of programs available to inmates in the new ACT prison.

I think we all acknowledge that some people have difficulty in their parenting skills—perhaps they were not raised in families that were conducive to good parenting. We have to take the opportunities when they are presented to ensure that that happens. The report goes on to recommendation 19, which reads:

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