Page 1295 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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the management of as difficult a policy as corrections policy is. The attorney is to be commended for that.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.52): It would appear the Chief Minister has a short memory because I think it was this place that ordered these inquiries to occur. The minister for corrections stands up and says, “I did the right thing; I went out and got a report.” My memory is that it was, of course, instigated by the opposition, through pressuring the government over their numerous failures—and that started with the marvellous pre-election opening of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, which was nothing more than a stunt, and culminated in a tripartisan report from a committee that had less than favourable outcomes for the minister.
That is what led to these reports being tabled here today. It is all well and good for the minister for spin to stand up and say, “I’ve done the right thing.” He was dragged kicking and screaming to this outcome. And you know how bad the outcome of the report is when the Chief Minister stands up and cannot defend his minister. He hoes straight into the Liberal Party—there are no words of support at the start to support the minister. All he can do is go on the attack. He does not talk about the report. No, no, no: “Let’s change the subject; we’ll get stuck into the Liberal Party because clearly that’s what the Liberal Party are here for.” So the minister will cherry-pick the good bits. The Chief Minister does not want to talk about either the report or seriously supporting the Attorney-General because I think he knows he is between a rock and a hard place.
The defence for the minister seems to be there were no serious incidents; therefore it was okay. Finding 12 on page 31 says:
That not withstanding there were no serious incidents that resulted in serious injury, loss of life or significant infrastructure damage and a number of good performance outcomes were achieved, the AMC suffered a range of operational deficiencies during the first 12 months of operation that resulted in less effective service outcomes and loss of reputation for ACT Corrective Services …
Basically, we got through by the skin of our teeth and it was luck more than good management. The next finding, finding 13, says:
That ACT Corrective Services does not have quality recording and reporting systems in place for key performance data. This shortcoming will, if not addressed quickly, result in ongoing flawed decision-making and accountability problems …
“Ongoing flawed decision-making and accountability problems.” So what we have is an institution that is being run based on flawed decisions because they do not have the data to back up what it is they are doing. Recommendation 1 says:
That ACT Corrective Services take urgent action to implement quality recording and reporting systems for key performance data.
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