Page 1471 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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point that a number of the relevant policies are available on the Department of Education and Training website—this is the other part of Mrs Dunne’s motion, though certainly not everything that Mrs Dunne has requested in her motion.
More generally on the existence, use and awareness of policies and procedures, I would go back to the minister’s statement last week in response to the assault of the MSS guard. I said that it was very concerning that the minister’s statement implied that a number of basic policies or procedures were not being applied. I do reiterate my concern on that. I would also make the point that the Greens readily recognise that the best written policies and procedures in the world mean absolutely nothing if staff are not educated on how they are to be applied and continually supported to ensure they are fully aware of any updates or revisions. As well as this, there of course needs to be a means of ensuring that staff follow the requirements; that there is some sort of compliance enforcement of these policies and procedures.
Again, I think we heard last week from the minister that each staff member was being given a copy of the policy and procedures manual. This is quite a thick document, and I do not think you can just hand a large document over to a staff member—although I do think it is good practice for them to have easy access to the manual. Really it is about how you build that into an ongoing training and information program, to ensure that everybody does know what the policies are and that everyone is on the same page as to how those policies and procedures are to be implemented.
The most appropriate way to ensure that this is occurring, and that things are right at Bimberi, is the Human Rights Commission inquiry. There have been a large number of complaints and issues raised about Bimberi and there is no doubt that they need to be addressed. But Mrs Dunne running a parallel inquiry each sitting week in the Assembly is not the way to do this. We have an extraordinarily highly skilled team working on the review. I have no doubt that they are the most highly skilled team that we could ever have hoped for, and we should be using that expertise.
On 30 March 2011 the Human Rights Commission released information about what they had achieved at the halfway mark of the review. The inquiry team reports that they have made significant progress. They have spoken in person to over 20 young people currently and formerly resident at Bimberi. They have spoken in person to more than 24 current or former staff and received 12 completed responses to an anonymous online survey for current and former staff. They have spoken in person to more than 20 key government and non-government stakeholders. They have received a range of written submissions, with the deadline of 15 April still some weeks away. They have conducted a one-day community forum with 32 participants representing government and non-government services from youth, health, mental health, justice and legal sectors.
The Greens will not be supporting the motion. Instead I have an amendment and I now move the amendment circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes that:
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