Page 1463 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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(5) calls on the Minister for Children and Young People and the Minister for Education and Training to table, by the close of the current sitting period:
(a) the relevant policies and procedures as appropriate to Bimberi Youth Justice Centre that were prepared prior to the transfer of detainees from Quamby Youth Detention Centre to Bimberi Youth Justice Centre;
(b) a statement as to when those policies and procedures were promulgated to staff, including contract staff, who were to work at Bimberi Youth Justice Centre;
(c) if those policies and procedures were not prepared in advance of the move from Quamby to Bimberi, a statement outlining the reasons for this failure; and
(d) if the relevant policies and procedures were not promulgated to staff and contract staff in advance of the move from Quamby to Bimberi, a statement outlining the reasons for this failure.
This is an important but fairly straightforward motion in relation to the Bimberi youth justice system. It seeks to obtain, for the information of all members here, the whole swag of programs and practices documentation that underpins the operation of the Bimberi youth justice system.
Many people that the Canberra Liberals deal with have a constant and repeated cry of dismay—that is, that the policies and procedures that underpin the operation of the Bimberi youth justice system are not transparent and they have not been made available to staff.
An allegation that I have heard on more than one occasion is that, when people have disciplinary action taken against them, by whatever means, that is the first time they have seen a particular procedure or practice—when they are accused of having breached that procedure or practice. This is not something that I have heard on a one-off occasion; it has been repeated to me on a number of occasions. It raises concerns with me, as it should with all members of this place, that the process of commissioning Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and the ongoing administration of Bimberi Youth Justice Centre have been flawed.
Last week the minister made a statement in relation to the inquiries that followed on from the attack on an MSS security guard on 5 February. There was a long litany of things that the minister now proposed should happen at Bimberi. That was highlighted by the two inquiries that she put in place as a result of this attack. Many of the things that were highlighted should have been things that were happening as a matter of course. I made the comment at the time, and I do not resile from it, that it appeared that the government had spent a lot of money, $42 million, on the capital structure, the bricks and mortar, and had not spent the money, the time, the manpower and the thinking power on how you would actually run Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and how it would be different.
This was highlighted for me quite recently in a discussion that I had with a number of Bimberi workers, some past and some present, who talked to me about the whole
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