Page 1640 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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There is a high level of exasperation in the community about Simon Corbell’s mismanagement of corrections and his failure to provide ministerial oversight. His excuse of teething problems has expired, and the minister must now be held to account. Ministerial responsibility does not mean that every mistake that occurs is for the minister to account for, but such protracted, extensive and serious failure in the one portfolio area reaches a point where the minister is, indeed, responsible and accountable.
The Assembly must act to ensure that the Chief Minister removes responsibility for corrections from him. If we have an Assembly that fails to act here today then we will have failed in our duty to hold the ministers and the government to account. Likewise, the Chief Minister must hold his ministers to account. The community expects it of him, and a failure by the Chief Minister to act today would be an admission by him that he in no way holds his ministers accountable or responsible.
I introduced a motion in February into this place that outlined what had been a litany of mistakes and blunders in corrections, and the minister was at that time directed by the Assembly to conduct an external review into the AMC. That review will not start for some time, and it is unclear when any findings will be made. What is clear, however, is that the community, in particular the prisoners incarcerated in the ACT and corrections officers who are on the front line, cannot wait any longer for their bungling minister to act.
It is quite clear that, despite the efforts of this Assembly to direct Simon Corbell to rectify the ongoing problems in corrections, it is simply beyond his level of competence to do so. Since the long list of failures contained in the motion in February, we have seen another extraordinary three months in corrections under Simon Corbell. It has been a further three months of abject failure.
The real concern is that the situation at the AMC appears to be worsening, not improving. Let me turn firstly to the wrongful release of a prisoner by ACT Corrective Services. This was a prisoner who was openly laughing at the situation when interviewed on WIN news, and who stated that, in relation to his wrongful release:
Anyone else could have, murderers, bad armed robbers, they all could have got out, it was that easy.
What went wrong, Mr Speaker? Is it the case that it was that easy? Could this happen again, and has it happened previously? These are all questions we need answers to. But all we see is a departmental official being wheeled out and saying that they will be looking into it. And Simon Corbell, the minister responsible, is conspicuous by his absence.
We have also seen allegations of breach of procedures and falsification of documents relating to a death in custody. Of course, a death in custody is a matter that is before the coroner, and I believe that he is due to report shortly. But what has been reported is that corrections officers falsified documents after the death to cover up their actions
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