Page 4224 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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I question how not informing and using the members of the Indigenous community to support these prisoners pursues a policy of community inclusion. The justice agreement was meant to have arisen from recommendations from the Aboriginal deaths in custody report in 1991. However, it is clear that this government will only pay lip-service to the recommendations from this report and do not realise the importance of ensuring that everything is done to avoid tragic deaths in custody.
That is why the Canberra Liberals are today calling for a review of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the application of the recommendations to all correctional facilities in the ACT, ensuring that this application reflects current best practice. We are calling for review not only because we believe it is important to ensure that all action is being taken but because the community has asked for it. I, along with the Attorney-General and the Greens, have been approached numerous times to undertake such a review, and the Attorney-General has repeatedly chosen to ignore these requests. The Canberra Liberals believe that there could not be a more important time to address this review.
We are also calling for an investigation into the procedures and practice surrounding the administration of medication, especially methadone, at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Since the Canberra Liberals highlighted the overdose incident in the media, the government has tried to argue that they have already undertaken a review. However, the recommendations of the incident report, as I quoted earlier, clearly indicate that no substantive action was taken immediately following the overdose. I welcome measures that will prevent such an overdose from happening again but, given this government’s record of trying to cover up the circumstances of this situation, this review needs to be open and transparent.
It is also clear from subsequent incidents that we are not utilising the services of the Indigenous liaison officer, the Aboriginal liaison officer and the official Indigenous officer to their best ability. These roles and the people in them provide a valuable service and we should be using them to provide the best support possible for Indigenous people in custody. That is why the Canberra Liberals are calling for clear guidelines on the circumstances and timing for communication with these people.
Today’s motion is the result of a tragic set of circumstances mishandled by the ACT Labor government from the very beginning. It comes in a long line of disasters at the jail: the fake opening, the failure of the security systems, continued non-operation of the RFID system, the damaging Burnet report, the retrofitting of cells because of capacity inadequacy, an improper termination of the superintendent. The list goes on. And both you, Mr Assistant Speaker, and the Attorney-General are well aware of that list.
It is clear from the August overdose that this government cannot manage the basics of running a jail but, instead of addressing this issue, their priority is a needle and syringe program. Introducing a needle program is not only against the wishes of the correctional officers, prisoners and nurses but is also dangerous, given that medication cannot be safely administered at the prison. I take this opportunity, while we are talking about the AMC, to again call on the government to back down on their push to introduce a needle exchange program in the jail.
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