Page 2360 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 June 2011
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So no due process will be followed. There will be no scrutiny. There will be no investigation. There will be no follow-up. I said again:
So will there be no review of what has occurred in this case by an independent authority?
Mr Corbell said again:
I am confident that the way my department has handled this matter has been both fair and sensitive to the concerns of the individual involved.
Ms Hunter was concerned about the scrutiny. She asked whether it would stand up to scrutiny. Mr Corbell has made it very clear that there will be no scrutiny of it. He wants it buried as deeply as he can because he says that it has been fair to the individual. But let us see what Mr Doug Buchanan, the superintendent of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, has said. I am quoting from the Canberra Times:
The chief of the ACT’s jail says he was axed after being accused by two convicted criminals of an act of violence. Doug Buchanan said he was axed as the jail’s superintendent by Corrections ACT before police had even been called in to investigate the allegations he assaulted a young prisoner.
Mr Buchanan, who calls himself a “political fall guy”, said a detainee complained to the Human Rights Commission that during a search on a prisoner in December, Mr Buchanan held a man down by his head.
A police spokeswoman said last night ACT Policing were assessing the complaint to determine whether the complaint warranted an investigation.
We still do not know the answer to that. I continue:
Mr Buchanan said that on Wednesday, two days before the police had been notified of the allegations, he was stood down.
Mr Corbell, on one hand, is saying that it is fair, that Mr Buchanan has been treated appropriately, but Mr Buchanan, who is the subject of this matter, is saying that it is not fair and it is not appropriate. I continue:
The next day he was called into a meeting with executive director … and her deputy … at which time his secondment was terminated.
Mr Buchanan, 56, said he had been denied due process, and he was “shattered” by his treatment.
“I’ve never been treated like this in my whole professional career that has spanned 34 years,” he said. “There’s a clear assumption of guilt here, allegations have been made and there’s no evidence to support that. I feel like a political fall guy.”
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