Page 3356 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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played out in public for all to see. The Greens do not to date have reason to believe that the former superintendent was sacked for his opposition to a needle and syringe program trial at the prison.
However, it does appear that there remain a number of issues that should be further looked into and we are interested to hear that the Justice and Community Safety Directorate will go ahead now with some form of independent review into the matter. We would welcome an assurance from the minister that the review will be a robust and respectful process for all involved. There are some concerns about the process of the superintendent’s moving on and we would reiterate our concern that due process be followed.
In relation to the Bimberi inquiry, again we have debated a whole motion on this point. There were some very poorly worded minutes of a meeting that could have given the impression to staff who were not at that meeting that they should talk to a supervisor before talking to the inquiry.
Whilst I do accept that there was no intention on the part of the ATSIS unit manager to do anything untoward, the staff involved should have understood that it was vital the minutes of the meeting properly reflect the intent of the discussion. I am sure that with the benefit of hindsight they would not have expressed it that way and I have no reason to suspect that that was ever the intention. I do not think that there can be any doubt that what we got out of the inquiry into the youth justice system was an exceptionally high quality report and we should be focusing on implementing the findings.
There are some cultural problems that exist around the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre and how it is run. Some of these are long-standing problems that I suspect came about because of the outdated ideas about how a youth justice centre should work and some have come about because of the politicisation of the issue. As the commissioner pointed out, this has led to perhaps an overly risk-adverse environment that means the young people are missing out on some of the programs or other opportunities that are available at Bimberi or that could be provided for them.
In relation to Mr Savery, that matter is very complicated and involves a range of different issues, both legal in relation to the scope and nature of obligations placed on the authority by the Planning and Development Act, and operational in relation to public sector management and the appointment of officeholders within the public service. These issues have not been resolved and for the Assembly to essentially make a finding on the issue at this stage would certainly be premature to say the least.
We then come to Ms Scattergood. Indeed, it appears that this is a case that highlights the need for not only legislative reform of the processes but also that significant cultural reforms are needed in parts of the public service. This case is a good example of a conscientious public servant who has done the right thing and highlighted poor practice and who was not well served by the mechanism that is supposed to protect her. It serves as a very important reminder to us all of the need for real change to ensure that it does not happen again.
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