Page 1341 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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problem remains in that these search provisions only apply to children and young people held in Quamby. They do not apply when they are in the custody of the AFP or the courts. Adult search provisions prevail there.
Why is it that human rights compliant search provisions only apply to children and young people in one out of the three locations where they can be held for corrections purposes? It is not fair that young people’s vulnerable status in corrections will not be recognised until, conceivably, 2008. Debating the Corrections Management Bill today without seeing such issues addressed is another lost opportunity to improve the rights of children and young people as soon as possible.
In a little over 12 months the AMC doors will open and many community groups expect that they will need to service its population, but they are yet to see any detail from the ACT government about how they will do so. Twelve months out they are also yet to be promised any funding in assisting in paying for the services they may be invited, or expected, to provide. The ACT government needs to understand that if community groups do not receive funding for this new category of consumers, community groups will not be able to afford to provide any services. So with only 12 months to go I hope to see the ACT government outline some provision of funding for this purpose in the budget next week.
I believe there is a lot of goodwill in the government and bureaucracy to make this project work. I am not sure if this bill is the ideal vehicle to realise that objective. There is still time to finetune this legislation before the jail opens. I hope the Labor party sees that harm minimisation and therapy is the way to achieve better social and personal outcomes from periods of incarceration. It is much better than tried, and failed, authoritarian wishful thinking.
I seek leave to table documents which are representations made by the corrections coalition, ACTCOSS and the AMA. There are a number of criticisms of this bill and the government’s consultative processes in these documents, and while I do not agree with all the points raised in the documents there are many compelling arguments made in them. I urge the government to give them serious consideration. I seek leave to table them so that other members also can see them. There is a submission from the Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform in that bundle.
Leave granted.
DR FOSKEY: I table the following papers:
Copy of letter to the Attorney-General from the President, Australian Medical Association Ltd, Australian Capital Territory Branch, dated 30 May 2007.
Copy of letter from the Chair, Community Coalition on Corrections, dated 24 May 2007.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Planning) (5.29), in reply: I thank members for their support of this important piece of legislation. I note the range of issues that members who
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