Page 579 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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public record. That is what a responsible minister should do, and that is what I have done.
There is also the issue of the 12-month review of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, a review which is close to finalisation I am advised and which I expect to receive very shortly. I have already indicated to members that I intend to table that report, and I expect to table that report in the next sittings of the Assembly. That report will provide us with a very valuable guide as to how we are going in implementing what is a challenging but important project for the territory—that is, taking responsibility for our own prisoners and for those who offend here in the territory and are facing a sentence from a court as a result.
It is a significant undertaking and it is an undertaking that is not without its challenges and risk. But I am very pleased with the efforts of ACT Corrective Services staff in bringing this project to fruition and delivering a custodial facility on the ground each and every day. It is a tough job; it is a difficult and complex job. I think it is more difficult and complex than many anticipated, even within Corrective Services. But we have not seen the serious and fundamental issues that some other correctional facilities have seen when they have been commissioned in this country. We have not seen riots. We have not seen deaths in custody as a result of failings on the part of Corrective Services personnel. We have not seen these things, and that is good for our facility and it is good for the future of the AMC.
I have no doubt that Mr Hamburger will identify areas for improvement. That is something the government will respond to positively, because it is a part of continuing to deliver a best-practice correctional environment here in the ACT, one that is focused on rehabilitation and on improving the future opportunities for those who are ultimately released from that facility. But I also have no doubt that Mr Hamburger will identify what we are doing well, where we lead the country and how we can build on our success. That is what this report should be all about.
This censure motion has no real substance. It lacks any serious claim or credibility. It is simply another attempt by the Liberal Party to criticise a project they opposed from day one. They see no votes or political advantage in shouldering the moral responsibility of managing and providing safe custody for those who offend against our laws. Their view is that we should continue to shift that problem off to someone else so that we do not have to worry about it and we do not have to think about it. In that they lack moral courage and they lack the commitment to follow through on so much of their rhetoric about community safety.
Ultimately, community safety can be measured by the extent to which we are prepared to face up to dealing with those who offend against our laws and who face a custodial sentence as a result, how we look after those people, how we work to try and rehabilitate those people, and how we try to reduce the level of crime and reoffending that occurs in our community once they are released. Have no doubt—the great majority of people who go into prison are released back into the community and they are released after relatively short periods of imprisonment.
We have an obligation to get it right. We have an obligation to run a facility effectively, and we have an obligation to continue to strive to deliver best practice.
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