Page 4693 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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This motion calls on the government to abandon this whilst we have not yet responded to the Michael Moore report and are still actively meeting with stakeholders around the issue of needle and syringe exchange and also the general issue of blood-borne virus management in correctional settings.
I do not know how many people Mr Hanson has met with—I understand he has met with a few—but there are many meetings that I have had, and indeed many that I have still to have before the government will consider a submission on this. As health minister, I have said a number of times that I believe a needle and syringe exchange program under appropriate and agreed conditions within a correctional setting would be beneficial overall to the health and wellbeing of prisoners. As Chief Minister, I accept that there are differing views, and persuasive views, and persuasive arguments being put forward by correctional staff, in particular, who are saying to the government that they do not want it to proceed and indeed would try to stop it proceeding if we did indicate a willingness to go down this path.
In the next few days, or a week or so, I will be releasing the inmate health survey that has been done recently, which will give us the latest, up-to-date figures. But from what I have read of that survey there are no surprises there. We are dealing with very high levels of hepatitis C. Nobody can stand up and say that there have been zero transmissions of hepatitis C in the jail, as Mr Hanson did earlier in his speech. No-one can say that, because not all prisoners are tested. They have the right to refuse testing. We do know that there was one case. Mr Hanson has apparently confused this. There is a case where a prisoner tested positive for hepatitis C after testing negative on reception—testing positive for hepatitis C whilst in the jail over a continuous period of time. The issue is that the prisoner then cleared the virus, Mr Hanson. It is different from not having the virus transmitted, but naturally there are some individuals that can clear the virus.
So just be careful. You cannot come in here and say that there have been zero transmissions. Nobody will say that. The doctors in the health centre would not say that, because they do not have the evidence to say that. I am very pleased to see that Mr Hanson feels that he has available to him all the information on every prisoner’s blood test, even those that have not actually agreed to having their blood tested, and has formed that opinion himself.
Mr Hanson also says that this is not a problem out of control. Hepatitis rates are, I think, about one or two per cent in the general community. In the prison setting it is well over 50 per cent. I do not know what part of those figures you do not think is an issue that needs to be responded to, but it is a serious issue. And the other issue is that most prisoners, the vast majority of them, will leave the AMC, reintegrate into the community and have contact with families and friends and children—and my children and your children and relatives. This is a community issue. The government cannot, as Mr Hanson would have us do today, simply ignore it because there are people who think it is a bit hard to deal with.
There are needles in the jail at the moment. The safety considerations for correctional officers exist at the moment. Having a needle and syringe program under appropriate
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