Page 248 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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possible and make sure its focus is on rehabilitation, but that cannot be continually used as an excuse by this government.
The human rights breaches at the Belconnen Remand Centre were actually exacerbated by this government due to its failure to open the Alexander Maconochie Centre on time. You will remember it was the human rights commissioner, Dr Helen Watchirs—and I congratulate her on her recent award of an OAM—that back in July 2007 declared the BRC inhumane.
Clearly, the New South Wales government thought that because the jail was opening in 2008 they would no longer be receiving prisoners from the BRC and they basically closed off their system. So it was the delay in the opening that then exacerbated the opening. And that is a finding—
Mr Corbell: That is just not true, Jeremy. Not even the committee says that.
MR HANSON: Let me quote from the committee. That is what they said. I will have to find it in the notes, but the committee did find that it was delays in the opening of the Alexander Maconochie Centre that exacerbated the human rights concerns at the Belconnen Remand Centre. Yes, I can quote it:
While the ACT’s remand facilities have always given rise to serious human rights concerns, these concerns were exacerbated during the period between the official opening … and the commencement of the transfer …
We have also seen a series of security breaches at the Belconnen Remand Centre, with incidents in late 2008 and early 2009. We saw the tunnelling incident. We saw six corrections officers injured in a violent incident. We saw leaking of information of an AFP investigation into members of his own department. We saw two prisoners on the roof of the BRC.
Then we saw Simon Corbell, who was not actually the minister but was the acting minister at the time, make his reckless response. Following an ongoing series of failures and embarrassments for the government, the Attorney-General, speaking in his role as the acting corrections minister, came out and explicitly commented on a case before the courts. He did this in order to deflect the criticism and embarrassment of both himself and his government in the media and he deliberately passed judgement on the matter before the courts in order to protect himself. As a result, Mr Corbell faced a motion in the Assembly expressing serious concern. The motion read:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes the potentially prejudicial comments made by the Attorney-General on ABC Radio and ABC TV on Tuesday, 3 February 2009 in relation to the actions of two detainees who went onto the roof of the Belconnen Remand Centre—
Mr Corbell: I was right, Jeremy. Have you seen the outcome of those cases?
MR HANSON: But the point is, minister, you do not—
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