Page 918 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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of time. And one of the things that the staff are saying to me is that the young people out there are badly behaved because they are bored. We have built them facilities and they cannot be used because they do not have appropriate staff to supervise them. We have a pool and no lifeguard. We have a recreation room but no recreation officer. We have had woodwork rooms and metalwork rooms and no teachers. And, when you did get a teacher, as soon as he raised an issue you showed him the door.
Mr Smyth: Andrew thought he was okay.
MRS DUNNE: Mr Barr thought he was a great bloke. Ms Burch’s department showed him the door. And what we have here today is a 12-page litany of the failures of successive ministers at Bimberi that have culminated in the near death of a security officer who was not properly trained, probably did not have a set of keys, did not have a radio and did not have a duress alarm on the day that he was assaulted. This is a substantial failure—and nothing in this statement can cover up that failure.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (11.36): I guess we have a statement here today which shows that a couple of reviews have been undertaken, and some of the information or recommendations that have come out of these reviews are quite startling. It is quite startling that policies, procedures or certain programs were not already in place. We have only recently set up an adult prison in the ACT, but we certainly have had a children’s prison for decades. You would have thought along the way we would have had policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of staff working in those facilities and the safety of the young people, the residents, in those facilities.
It appears from the reviews that there were many areas that were simply lacking in having adequate policies and procedures and some sort of compliance checking system. This really needs to be rectified quickly, and we need to see an ongoing training and compliance system put in place.
We have had a huge turnover in staff at Bimberi. I note that all staff are now going to be given a copy of the policy and procedures manual. It makes me wonder what was in place before that to ensure that staff knew of all the policies and procedures. There is talk of a six-week induction process, but that is hardly adequate. Policies and procedures, knowing what to do, when to do it and how to do it is an ongoing training program; it cannot just be a one-off. Of course, handing someone a manual is also not good enough. We need to see what is in place to support staff to ensure that they have ongoing training so that they understand their responsibilities within the centre.
Another area that makes me feel quite concerned—and Mrs Dunne referred to this—is around self-harm in the centre. We have had some concerning reports about self-harm and attempts at suicide. Many years ago in the previous facility at Quamby, unfortunately a young man committed suicide. You would have thought that would be the instigator, the catalyst, to ensure that policies and procedures were in place, not just around what we now have of checking the physical infrastructure around hanging points but proper training of staff around suicide prevention and awareness. Yet I note in this statement today that from 4 April 2011 suicide awareness training will be delivered as part of the induction package. Quite frankly, it shocks me that it was not
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