Page 3397 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 September 2015
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country, the Goulburn super max and, despite having a Liberal Party government in New South Wales and, of course, a conservative minister in that government, they are also dealing with contraband issues.
I say this not to cast any stones at the New South Wales correctional system or the guards or the minister but to illustrate as clearly as I can that even in the most secure environment in our nation there are drugs and phones and contraband issues. That is a really important point to make because Mr Wall and his ilk waltz into this place, get in the media and go “Come on, you just have to stop it”. But it is important to reflect on the reality that even at the Goulburn super max they face the same challenges that we do.
I am pleased to hear that Mr Wall has actually taken the time to visit other jails and I hope that in doing so he has also spoken to his colleagues in other jurisdictions because I certainly do both of those things on a regular basis. I have met with corrective services ministers from all political persuasions—Greens, Liberal, Labor and National—and toured jails in New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Every year the corrective services ministers conference provides a valuable forum for ministers to share information and discuss strategic and national issues, approving joint initiatives as appropriate, providing direction on national issues and determining shared positions in relation to other groups such as the standing council on law and justice.
I can inform those opposite that while there are many important and interesting topics to discuss, contraband and illicit substance use are also regular topics. The same can be said of the Corrective Services Administrators Council, which is the commissioners forum and meets biannually. I can assure Mr Wall that the management practices of ACT Corrective Services senior staff and the executive director are not found wanting at these meetings despite the poor inference in the motion before us.
Unlike Mr Wall's simplistic reading of the issues the discussions are not just about ordering reviews. We talk about the actual strategies we are all employing to increase detection of contraband; effective rehabilitative programs; professional development opportunities for our officers; and responding to emerging technologies. A recent discussion about the issue of drones and their potential for introduction of contraband in jails is a good example of jurisdictions collaborating to try to get ahead of the curve when it comes to new technologies that are a challenge in the prison environment.
At the risk of repeating my speech the last time Mr Wall raised this kind of motion, let me just take him through some, but not all, of the static and dynamic security measures we have in place. We have metal detectors, X-ray baggage scanners, itemisers to detect traces of drugs and explosives, physical searches of all vehicles prior to entering and exiting the AMC and more than 300 CCTV cameras. All of these security measures are complemented by the efforts of ACT Corrective Services intelligence staff, custodial officers and the K9 Unit working together with other law enforcement agencies to prevent or intercept contraband before its entry into the AMC.
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