Page 1350 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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This amendment seeks to inserts a new clause 50A. I note with appreciation the effort that the ACT government has gone to to meet many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander requirements and considerations throughout the Corrections Management Bill. Whether the new jail complies with many of the recommendations of the deaths in custody royal commission will depend on what shape the prison health plan takes and what priority will be given to harm minimisation and health concerns relative to security and zero tolerance considerations. This amendment is intended to ensure that a detainee is given the choice of informing a relative or other person if they are transferred. While I do not expect the government to support this amendment to the legislation, I do hope that these concerns will be covered in the regulations.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (6.04): The government will be agreeing to this amendment. Chapter 9 of the bill already addresses the kind of communication monitoring and recording that would be authorised. Chapter 9 does not authorise the monitoring and recording of communications during a visit and, as members would be aware, a government must be given a lawful power to engage in activity that affects the rights of a person. The bill does not give this authority, so the government is not able to do it. The government is prepared to agree to the amendment on the basis that it simply summarises the effect of the bill as it stands.
Proposed new clause 50A agreed to.
Clauses 51 to 85, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Proposed new clause 85A.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (6.05): I move amendment No 6 circulated in my name. [see schedule 2 at page 1362].
This amendment seeks to insert a new clause 85A. The speech I made previously should have gone with this amendment, so I will leave it as read.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (6.07): The government does not agree to this amendment and will not be supporting it. Apart from subclause (1) (b), Dr Foskey’s amendment seems to be a summary of what the government envisages would have been part of the operating procedure under clause 14. The government cannot accept the amendment in its current form, as it would create a new obligation that applied to everyone that was held in a police cell overnight. The obligations in relation to maximum times in police cells are set out in chapter 4 of the bill. Dr Foskey’s amendment creates a thoroughly new obligation that would apply to everyone held in police custody following arrest and anyone who was held overnight by police in a police cell while in transit between states.
Proposed new clause 85A negatived.
Clauses 86 to 97, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
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