Page 199 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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Mrs Jones’s motion and the amendment I have proposed highlight that it can be difficult for the community and the Assembly to effectively keep track of the government’s activities in implementing the agreed recommendations when so many reviews have occurred, which in and of themselves have contained a manageable 10 recommendations in the Auditor-General’s report to over 100 in the Hamburger review. As I have said, these can certainly take some considerable time to respond to when you think of how many recommendations there can be.
It is for this reason that I now move the amendment:
Omit all words after “(1)”, substitute “notes that:
(a) the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) has been the subject of numerous reviews, standing committee inquiries and audits since opening in 2009;
(b) the ACT Government has a responsibility to respond to these reports in a variety of formats, and these responses are a matter of public record;
(c) some of the recommendations from these reviews that were agreed to by the ACT Government over eight years may no longer be current or have ongoing relevance to the security and good order of the AMC;
(d) the Minister for Corrections will provide an update on recommendations that have been agreed to by Government that relate to the operations of the AMC to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety in May 2017; and
(e) the Minister for Corrections will make a statement to the Assembly by the last sitting day in May 2017 on these issues.”.
I believe that amendment will result in information to the Assembly that is helpful and transparent and that updates the Assembly on the progress that has been made on those recommendations. I indicate that I am sure some of them will need ongoing work because they do take time to follow through. But I do not shy away from the negative or problematic issues that have in many cases been the genesis of these reviews.
The tragic death of Mr Freeman in custody and his treatment and care while in the AMC is of ongoing concern to me and the government, and we will continue to work hard to address any issues that require further action. We still have a coronial process underway on that matter. There are further findings potentially to be made and we must be mindful of that. But certainly the findings of Mr Moss are now being actively worked on across the government for as rapid a response as we can make when we have to collaborate across a range of agencies and we will continue to monitor the coronial process as it unfolds.
As I have mentioned, ACT Corrective Services is also taking the first and only escape from the AMC extremely seriously and took immediate steps to minimise further incidents of this nature. It was regrettable. After an 18-month construction project on
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