Page 1410 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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I also just note regarding the testing for blood-borne viruses that my office contacted the human rights commissioner quite some time ago regarding the process that is used with testing on entry and not exit. This is related to the Human Rights Act and does create a situation where you are not getting accurate data. This is difficult to accommodate, and we did actually ask the commissioner about this.
I do have to mention the position of the New South Wales Liberal Party on this issue of an NSP. Their position actually came out through a formal submission to the Community Justice Coalition, which asked all major parties for their position on policy issues in relation to corrections. In their submission to the Community Justice Coalition, in relation to justice health and in response to the question, “Will you commit to supporting the trial of a needle and syringe program in appropriate correctional facilities with independent evaluation of the outcomes of any such trial?” the answer was, “We will consider supporting the trial of a needle and syringe program in appropriate correctional facilities with independent evaluation of the outcomes of any such trial.”
I have not yet had a chance to thoroughly read through all the 330 pages of the Hamburger report, and all the 100-odd pages of its appendices, which was given to us approximately 24 hours ago. I do have to say that I find it amazing that Mr Hanson was able to come up with a motion of censure so quickly after the report was tabled—around 10 minutes or so after, in fact—even though both Mr Hanson and Mr Seselja said they would read through the report thoroughly. Perhaps Mr Hanson was able to provide something he had prepared earlier. From what I have been able to read of the report thus far, it is a good and thorough report.
When I was mentioning before about blood testing, I did mean to note that Mr Hanson still this week did not seem to think that hep C was a problem in the prison. He is still saying he does not see it as a problem. It does not take much to work out that if you have high levels of hep C in your prison population, as AMC does, and if needles are being shared, infection will occur, and I think that is something we should note.
The Hamburger report, as I said, is a very thorough and forensic report; it goes through the issues very thoroughly. I think we place a great deal of trust in experts such as Mr Hamburger to provide independent and expert advice, and I want to take this work very seriously, as we all should. I appreciate that the Liberals, with the support of the Greens, decided that this report should be done independently and I think we are better off for that. And I acknowledge that the minister did carry through with this motion and did appoint Mr Hamburger, a highly experienced and expert person, to undertake this review.
There are concerns which I very much intend to track, and they are things which I have already raised over the last few years, particularly concerning the health and wellbeing of those most vulnerable detainees. I will go through some of those immediate concerns now and I flag my intention to follow them up. But I will also say there is a very strong task force of five people to follow this up and this task force includes two very well-respected and experienced members of the community who are part of organisations who have been involved with the AMC over the last few
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