Page 1415 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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Having mismanaged it so badly, what the government now want to do is to say: “Well, we didn’t manage to keep the drugs out—we never really intended to; we never did anything. Now what we need is a needle and syringe program. That’s the way to go.” This minister has failed so comprehensively that he has managed to cause the Canberra Times to have second thoughts about a needle and syringe program. The Canberra Times is now saying, “We sort of think a needle and syringe program might be a good idea.” But not under this government. How could you trust them to manage it? They have not managed anything, when it comes to this prison, effectively. They have completely mismanaged it from start to finish. And now they are saying, “We should have a needle and syringe program.” The Canberra Times, in its editorial yesterday, makes this point:
Amid these failures, the Government is now considering whether to trial what would be the first controlled needle exchange within an Australian jail.
The Canberra Times continues:
There are strong arguments …
They believe there are strong arguments; we disagree. But even those who agree that there are strong arguments now do not have any confidence that this could be administered properly. The editorial continues:
An exchange could help protect those who are not presently infected. There may be merit in trialling such a scheme—if it was controlled strictly, and if it was conducted in sync with far more forceful efforts to eliminate drugs from the prison.
They are not doing that, are they? We can have no confidence that they are doing that because at the moment it is a free-for-all. It is an absolute free-for-all. It is not hard at the moment to get drugs in the prison. No genuine effort is being made by this government to keep drugs out. What they are now saying is: “Trust us. We haven’t been able to keep any of the drugs out of prison. It’s a free flow of drugs in the prison. We’ve got methadone now being pushed on prisoners. But trust us to run a needle exchange program.” How could the community have any confidence when we see such shambolic management of the prison to date from this minister, from this government?
This is a minister who does deserve to be censured. He deserves to be censured for the litany of failures that have occurred on his watch. He deserves to be censured because we now see such a breakdown in the management of this prison that drugs are freely available, that the safety of prison guards is now under serious question. And this government’s response to that is a needle and syringe program. We do not agree to that, and certainly even supporters of a needle and syringe program are now having second thoughts, because they can see that this minister and this government cannot be trusted to actually administer it. They cannot be trusted to keep prison guards, in particular, safe.
Mr Speaker, this minister should be censured. He should be censured for his performance, he should be censured for the way that he has treated this Assembly and
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