Page 2673 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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MR HANSON (Molonglo) (3.55): I think the one thing that the minister and I would agree on is to commend the hardworking staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and elsewhere throughout ACT Corrective Services. I certainly differ from him on almost every other point, particularly his view that the government that he is a member of is responsible and accountable. I would question either of those statements and would go even further to say that it also lacks competence. You can actually draw that from the report of Mr Hamburger, which I will quote from:
Since commissioning of the AMC there have existed systemic problems with the governance in ACT Corrective Services that have resulted in management and supervision practices not being effective.
So if the minister is not responsible for that, if the minister is not accountable for governance supervision not being effective, who is? At the outset, it is quite clear from this report that the government commissioned that the government has much to answer for.
When they talk about being accountable, let us just remember that the reason that we had this open and accountable process in the first place is because of a motion in the Assembly. The government was simply going to conduct a review of policies and procedures after 12 months. There was no intent that that would be an open or independent process, and it was only by a motion of this Assembly that we had the first report. Then it was because Mr Corbell misled the Assembly by saying that—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): On a point of order, Mr Hanson, I remind you—
MR HANSON: Could you stop the clocks, please?
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Stop the clocks. I remind you that it is unparliamentary to say that the minister misled the Assembly. I require you to withdraw that remark.
MR HANSON: Well, Mr Assistant Speaker, on your—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Unqualified, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: On the point of order, Mr Assistant Speaker, the minister actually apologised to the Assembly for having misled the Assembly, so I think—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, I have asked you to withdraw it.
MR HANSON: Well, Mr Assistant Speaker, I will withdraw it.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Unqualified, thank you. You can resume your debate.
MR HANSON: I will try and rephrase it then. The second report was commissioned after the minister—what words will I use then?—essentially told us that drug testing was occurring and it turned out that that drug testing was not occurring. He came in
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