Page 4694 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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circumstances and controls would not change that or increase the safety concerns that exist already. But I acknowledge them. That is why I have met with the CPSU and why I will continue to talk to them as the government refines its thinking in this area prior to taking a submission to cabinet. But, Mr Hanson, I have responsibilities other than just backing the correctional officers. I have to listen; I have to respond. The government has a duty of care. The government has a Human Rights Act. The government wants to do things differently in the AMC.
We want to be a better jail than anywhere else. Yes, I think we can get there. There are issues that we need to respond to, and that will continue, but if you have visited the AMC and visited other jails, and if you look at some of the services that we are able to provide there, you will see that they are far in excess—a number of reports have supported this—of the services that are available to our prisoners. Let us face it: Mr Hanson did not even want a prison here; he did not even want ACT prisoners in the ACT. Well, the prison is here. The prisoners are here. The health issues are here. We need to respond to them.
Mr Hanson draws to my attention the fact that he is saying that 40-odd people are denied hepatitis C treatment. That is absolutely incorrect, and Mr Hanson knows that. People coming through the jail are for the first time getting access to the liver clinic at the Canberra Hospital, where they are actually being cured of hepatitis C, where the opportunity exists to be cured of a virus that has been debilitating them through their lives—through their lives in correctional settings and out in the community. For the first time, because we have our jail here, because we have the services that we provide, we are offering those prisoners that help. Prisoners are taking it up. And guess what? They are having successful treatment. They are starting their treatment in jail. Some of them, if their sentence finishes while they are undergoing treatment, are continuing that contact at the Canberra Hospital on release.
There are a number of people who test positive for hepatitis C who may not have any symptoms at the moment, who may not seek the treatment that is offered at the liver clinic for various reasons or who, for clinical reasons, may not be appropriate for that treatment. These are all decisions that are taken. Every single prisoner with hepatitis C at the AMC has a treatment plan with the doctor. Those decisions are made on a clinical basis, as they should be.
Yes, there is demand for spots within the liver clinic, because it is a time-consuming course. It takes months of treatment. It makes people quite unwell whilst they are undergoing that treatment. But once they have completed that treatment, other people can get on the program. That is the way it is for the general community as well. It is done the same way we manage all health services. It is not just that everyone can have this treatment immediately. That is not the way the system can run; we do not have the staff or the capacity to do that. I completely reject the allegation that there are 41 people being denied treatment at the AMC. That is simply not true.
What we have here is a situation where we have a significant health issue in a correctional setting which has a variety of responses required. Harm minimisation is one of them. That is the issue that we are talking about today. Supply and demand reduction strategies will continue. There are a range of other strategies in blood-borne
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