Page 183 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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that were the subject of the inquiry and human rights audit referred to in paragraph (1)(a).
It is with more than a little sadness and certainly not in anger that the Canberra Liberals bring this matter to the attention of the Assembly today so soon after it was discussed last year. And we do so against a background of an assault on an MSS security guard, continuing escapes of detainees onto the roof of Bimberi, the high incidence of self-harm the detainees of Bimberi commit when compared to other places in Australia, particularly New South Wales, and the whole range of chronic staffing issues which my colleagues, particularly Mr Smyth, will outline later in the debate.
The Canberra Liberals bring this issue back here today because we have collectively lost confidence in the inquirer, the Children and Young People Commissioner, because of his repeated breaches of confidentiality of staff. To that end, I seek leave to table letters that I sent to the Attorney-General, the Minister for Children and Young People and the Greens Parliamentary Convenor on 4 February, along with the documents that accompanied those letters.
Leave granted.
MRS DUNNE: I table the following papers:
Children and Young People Commissioner—Letters (3) from Mrs Dunne, dated 4 February 2011.
To summarise, very briefly, in those documents there is clear evidence that there are two instances of clear breaches of confidentiality, both of them without the authority of the person concerned, and there is also an attempt to mislead me in the legitimate conduct of my work as a member of this place.
The first of these breaches goes back to early November when a Bimberi staff member went to the Children and Young People Commissioner with a range of concerns. To preserve the identity of that staff member for the rest of this debate, I will refer to them simply as X.
On 8 December, soon after this Assembly established the Children and Young People Commissioner as the inquirer, an intermediary for staff at Bimberi approached me with their concerns about the appointment. And the next day, 9 December, X sent me a text message saying that they had made a formal approach to the Children and Young Person Commissioner in November in an attempt to “invoke interest in the situation at Bimberi and the precarious environment for young people”. X said that the commissioner had spoken to X’s supervisor about the matters discussed with him. The commissioner did this without X’s authority.
The supervisor then approached X and asked what was going on. X was—and I quote from X’s text message to me—“shocked because I had believed my conversation with y.p.c. was confidential”. X acknowledged my understanding of the gravity of the situation. It is a pity that ACT Labor and the Greens have so far not done so. It is
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