Page 201 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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We have further work to do. ACT Corrective Services does need to undertake further change and I am happy to share with the Assembly and the ACT community not only how far we have come in responding to the recommendations of the many experts and oversight agencies but also what we are doing now to improve service delivery and what we are planning to do in the near future to further realise the potential of the jail as a place of secure rehabilitation and to enhance the broader operations of our relatively young corrective services system. It is only eight years since the AMC was opened.
There is work to be done. There are things that will crop up from time to time that will require response but what I can assure the Assembly is that ACT Corrective Services and I as the responsible minister are committed to responding to those issues as they arise and dealing with them as effectively as possible.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (5.51): I am delighted to stand here and support Mrs Jones and her motion. This is a very serious issue that she has put forward and her motion is a very reasonable one. I share her concern that after raising issues such as a death in custody, drugs in the jail, security issues—a range of issues—rather than responding to them, I think, in a considered way, Mr Rattenbury chose to laugh, giggle, dismiss throughout his speech.
He concluded his speech today by saying Corrective Services “will deal with things that pop up from time to time”. This is how he sees issues such as a death in custody, something that just pops up as an issue from time to time. Drugs that are coming into the jail, the bashings that we have seen, and the capacity issues that have just been disgraceful: to dismiss this by saying, “Oh, the jail’s only been open for eight years,” is not good enough. How long is it going to take? How long is it going to take before the time for excuses runs out for this government? Simply saying it is only eight years old is an inadequate response. It has been a somewhat arrogant response.
My staff has printed out a range of articles in the past couple of years, which I have brought down here with me, about the range of very serious issues that have been litigated publicly, from bashings to jail escapes, to a death in custody, to drug issues, to misuse of carriage services and so on. It is no wonder that what we have seen is people who are close to this issue, people who are expert in this issue—be it Jon Stanhope who set this jail up with great dreams, great intent, amongst others—have been disappointed by the reality, and it is a reality that seems to be dismissed by the attitude of the minister.
Indeed, Julie Tongs who runs Winnunga Nimmityjah—I am sure many of us would know her—expressed her disappointment at the minister’s response to the unfortunate death in custody, citing it in an article this year as too little too late. We have seen the Canberra Times editorial that poor decisions continue to haunt Canberra’s jail. Another editorial was that AMC was failing drug addicts. These are not just concerns that are being raised by the Canberra Liberals. These are concerns that are being raised by experts. These are concerns that are being raised by people who are close to the jail and who are certainly not Liberal stooges—Mr Jon Stanhope, Ms Julie Tongs and others who recognise the problems of this jail.
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