Page 2659 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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Today I tabled the government’s final response to the report External component of the evaluation of drug policies and services and their subsequent effects on prisoners and staff within the Alexander Maconochie Centre. As members of the Assembly will know, the ACT government gave a commitment to undertake an evaluation of the drug policies and services provided to prisoners at the AMC in accordance with the Health Directorate’s Adult Corrections Health Services Plan 2008-12. The evaluation was conducted as a joint initiative of the Health and JACS directorates with myself as ACT Minister for Health taking the lead on the evaluation within the government.
In April 2011, I tabled the government’s interim response to this report. At that time I indicated that the Burnet report was a significant review of the health services we provide for the detainees at the AMC and that it provided detailed analysis that the government needed to consider thoroughly.
The interim response was designed to be used as a platform upon which more detailed consultation could be undertaken before a final government response was settled. In our interim response the government agreed to 10 of the recommendations, agreed in part to one recommendation, agreed in principle to 27 of the recommendations and noted 31 recommendations. I noted at that time that a number of the recommendations needed to be considered in parallel with the recommendations from the Knowledge Consulting review and that further consideration needed to be given to recommendations that had resourcing implications.
In the government’s final response tabled today, each recommendation has been` addressed individually and anticipated timelines provided for completion of supported recommendations. Since the release of the Burnet report and the tabling of the interim government response, the Health Directorate and the Justice and Community Safety Directorate have invited key stakeholder groups to be involved in further consultation.
These groups include staff of ACT Corrective Services; the Justice and Community Safety Directorate, including workplace, community and public sector union delegates, custodial officers, non-custodial officers and functional managers; key staff of Mental Health, Justice Health and Alcohol and Drug Services in the Health Directorate; the Australian Nursing Federation; the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation; the Health Services Union; the CPSU and the AMWU; the AMA; the ACT Division of General Practice; the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Association; the Sexual Health, AIDS-HIV, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases Ministerial Advisory Council; the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Services; the Evaluation Group—ACT Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Strategy; and the chair of the Community Integration Governance Group.
The aims of these consultations were to seek comment on the interim government response to the recommendations outlined in the Burnet report and to inform the final government response. As a result of these consultations and further deliberations within government, a number of key issues were identified and proposed changes have been made to the final government response. The feedback provided will also be taken into account as implementation of the recommendations progresses.
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