Page 1566 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
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ACT Corrective Services and Alexander Maconochie Centre—Reviews—Progress report, dated March 2012, on—
Independent Review of Operations at the Alexander Maconochie Centre—ACT Corrective Services, prepared by Knowledge Consulting—Report.
Provision of Specific Consultancy Services to Review ACT Corrective Services Governance including in relation to Drug Testing at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
I ask leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
DR BOURKE: Today I am pleased to table in the Assembly a progress report on the work of the AMC task force since it was commissioned in April last year to address the 133 recommendations of the two Knowledge Consulting reports on the AMC.
Since I was appointed as the Minister for Corrections, I have been impressed with the diligence the task force has applied to addressing the Knowledge Consulting reports. I know, too, that significant work has been undertaken by the management and staff of ACT Corrective Services, not to forget the contribution of others, including from our ACT Health partners.
In his review, Keith Hamburger and his team from Knowledge Consulting comprehensively addressed a wide variety of topics, many of which have interconnections between them. The achievements to date in addressing the Knowledge Consulting reviews demonstrate this government’s commitment to continually and diligently scrutinise our operations and to be open, accountable and responsive to the people of the territory.
The work of the task force has been methodical and at times challenging. At the outset I want to acknowledge the individual contributions to the task force, including from Simon Rosenberg, the CEO of Northside Community Service; Jeremy Boland, a former official visitor to the AMC now working in the ACT public service; Brendan Church, nominated by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, who replaced Fred Monaghan on the task force in January this year; Don Taylor, the new superintendent of the AMC; and the task force chair, Ms Bernadette Mitcherson, the Executive Director of ACT Corrective Services.
This government acknowledges that there are many complex issues among the findings and recommendations, and some of these will take longer to work through than others. I can tell you that of the 133 recommendations, 73 are complete and the remaining 60 are being appropriately addressed, with 52 on track and classified as “green”. Eight are not proceeding as quickly as the task force might have anticipated and so are classed as “amber”. None are in the “red” zone.
The task force has been ever mindful of the need for strong relationships between ACT Corrective Services and those external to corrections, and the relationships
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