Page 2198 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 4 June 2013
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society, we amount to nothing if we do not strive to protect the most vulnerable amongst us.
In its preamble, the Human Rights Act 2004 affirms that human rights are necessary for individuals to live lives of dignity and value. That act acknowledges that respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of individuals improves the welfare of the whole community. This is because individuals who see themselves as the holders of rights can more clearly understand their responsibilities for upholding the human rights of others.
That notion of seeing, of vision and scrutiny, is of central importance to the bill we discuss today.
The official visitor scheme focuses on individuals in our community who are most acutely vulnerable—more vulnerable than others on the basis of different circumstances. It is concerned with the rights and welfare of adult detainees in correctional facilities; children and young people in juvenile justice rehabilitation facilities; people with a mental illness or mental dysfunction receiving treatment in a secure mental health facility; and, more recently, people with a disability and people who are at risk of being homeless.
As a result of their different circumstances, these people are at heightened risk of abuse and degrading treatment. Their right to privacy may be limited. Their freedom of movement may be limited—by court order or tribunal decision, or by other circumstances. They may be acutely vulnerable to neglect. And they may be unable to speak for themselves.
The official visitor scheme shines a light on the places where we find our most vulnerable people so that we can see more clearly. It provides an early warning to ensure that the systems that service vulnerable people reflect our human rights principles and maintain the highest standards of treatment and care.
The official visitor scheme is dynamic. It is unique. It is effective. And it is responsive, because the government pays attention to what our official visitors tell us.
Before the Official Visitor Act, as Minister for Corrections, Mr Corbell had appointed Ms Tracey Whetnall as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander official visitor for corrections, to provide additional, culturally specific support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees, who are over-represented in our correctional facilities.
It has been an honour and privilege to work with a number of official visitors during my years as Minister for Health—as it has been for the Attorney-General, as Minister for Corrections. Despite certain representations made during the development and passage of the Official Visitor Act, neither the Attorney-General nor the official visitors he worked with considered the working relationship a threat to their independence.
Those misapprehensions aside, the government has been responsive to the views of stakeholders, including the official visitors, to develop the detail of this bill. The bill
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