Page 2752 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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sector; and no training or sector development funding for the youth sector to support young people who are presenting with increasingly complex issues, such as dual diagnosis of mental health, and alcohol and other drug issues. When you compare the positive with the negative, it looks like our young people are worse off.
I have a few concerns about Quamby. The first is Mental Health ACT’s removal of the two on-site psychologists due to occupational health and safety issues. Although Quamby has now fixed the problems, the psychologists are not back on site. According to an estimates question on notice, there were six incidents of self-harm in 2005-06. Given that and the difficulty that young people, especially ones in Quamby, have in opening up and asking for help, the government needs to return the on-site psychologists immediately.
My second concern is in regard to the human rights audit of Quamby. It was a major project that delivered important recommendations. I note that some recommendations that could be implemented at this stage, regarding food and the demountables, have been implemented, but others have not. The fact that the cage is still operating at Quamby is disgraceful and I call on the government to take immediate action to remedy this human rights infringement.
I am also concerned that the government claims that it cannot implement all of the human rights recommendations, such as segregating remandees and offenders, due to economies of scale, but at the same time it has rejected our call to give the new youth detention facility a regional, rather than ACT, focus to overcome economies of scale. It would be much more conducive to rehabilitation if young people from places such as Yass and Queanbeyan were sent to the ACT rather than Wollongong and if young remandees could be therefore separated from convicted offenders.
Turning to multicultural affairs, we are concerned that the ACT government’s commitment to multiculturalism and consultation has petered out under Minister Hargreaves. During estimates, the minister said that multicultural affairs did not need to be prioritised in Canberra because we do not suffer from racial riots like those in Cronulla. The minister thinks he knows more about the community than the community does. I am told by young people that the text messages regarding Cronulla were reaching Canberra and that some young people in Canberra were responding to the calls. We are not isolated.
The fact that in the estimates hearings the minister could name only two activities run by the Office of Multicultural Affairs is also a sad reflection of his commitment to the portfolio. Mr Hargreaves also denied the need for a peak multicultural body or secure funding for such a body. Whilst I recognise that we currently have two peak bodies, we have to find a way to provide secure funding to peak organisations in the long run. At the moment, both organisations can only look to the short term and that will have a major impact on the work they are able to conduct.
The disbandment of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs leaves the minister with diminished community representation and community advice. Whilst I appreciate the value of his multicultural forums, I still do not see that they replace MACMA. There should not be any need to choose between MACMA and forums as he could have both, but apparently he does not want that.
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