Page 1654 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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solutions to the problems it raises. I would reiterate that this is doubly concerning when there is already an independent process examining the problems and issues within the AMC. Upon completion of that review, we expect the minister to implement all relevant recommendations, and we are willing to work with the Canberra Liberals within the Assembly to adopt the necessary recommendations.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.47): Mr Speaker, it would appear that the Greens-Labor alliance is well and truly alive in this place when we have a Greens member with responsibility for this portfolio who speaks for almost 15 minutes but does not actually address a single point in the motion. The Greens say they are third-party insurance. It is third-party insurance fraud when you actually do not even look at a single point in the motion and say, “Well, that is bad; we would like to see it improved,” or, “We are concerned about the litany of failure since 10 February. We were concerned in February. We are concerned even more now and we want something to happen.”
But, no, we do not hear that. We get a little bit of rhetoric about, “We do not like the way things work in the Assembly.” We get trotted out a minute and an email from a constituent that I have never heard of or know nothing about. The member might like to table the email so that we know that it exists, so that we know what is actually in the email. But at the end of the day what Ms Bresnan does not say is what is the bar that is set for accountability in this place. That is our job. She wants to outsource the job of the MLAs to other people because the Greens are afraid to stand up for anything. They are afraid to set a standard and hold a minister accountable to a standard. And what we have seen since 10 February—the deterioration in the standard of service, of accountability, from the minister—is appalling.
We have got, supposedly, the human rights prison. We have got the prison that was going to be different. We have got a prison in which Mr Corbell was going to make sure that the culture was different from everywhere else. But what Mr Corbell has allowed to happen is for the culture to be imported from everywhere else. That is the problem. Mr Corbell is long on the spin and long on the rhetoric but will not be held accountable for anything.
This is the record of the human rights prison: lockdowns; cover-ups; unlawful release; alleged rape and abuse; rooftop protests; low morale in the staff, leading to discipline and resignations; service providers locked out; drugs and other contraband in the prison; needle sharing—and the list goes on. That is our human rights compliant prison. And that is the standard of leadership that Ms Bresnan and the Greens are happy with. So it is no wonder when you are part of the Greens-Labor alliance that you would not even read some of the motion before you dismiss it and you say, “Oh, we didn’t know three, four, five weeks ago that this was going to happen.”
Well, we did not know either. When was the report on the unlawful release of the prisoner? That was not in mid-April. That would have been—ooh, last Friday. These incidences are occurring, recurring and continuing to occur because of a lack of leadership. Leadership starts at the top. It does not start at the grassroots; it starts with the leader of the organisation, the person responsible—in this case, the minister—saying, “This is what will happen; this is what I want to happen,” and then providing
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