Page 2805 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 16 August 2017
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The minister told the Assembly that the rise in the population of women in the AMC was a development for which he did not plan. I ask the minister how it is that he did not foresee the rise in the number of women being incarcerated in the ACT, when even ABS statistics show that the per 100,000 rate of women being incarcerated in the ACT has been steadily rising since 2014.
This evidence shows that there has been a trend for some years across the ACT. Yes, the trend has accelerated, but there has absolutely been, year on year, a trend of increase. The government’s very own JACS annual reports indicate that the average daily female prisoner population has continued to grow, particularly amongst Indigenous women. It has not been growing exclusively in the past few months. This growth dates back to the year the AMC was opened. Was the government ignoring these facts or just not doing due diligence?
Did the minister consider the massive growth to our population in the ACT we keep hearing about from this government? And what about the growth rate of women in prisons in other states and around the world? Furthermore, the government’s response to the Select Committee on Estimates report yesterday is further evidence the government is not willing to accept that it has actually failed in this area of good governance.
Recommendations 81 and 82 of the report recommend that the government immediately address the lack of dedicated accommodation for women in the AMC, and report to the Assembly on any plans for resolving it. Arrogantly and disrespectfully, the government’s response to the committee is merely to note those recommendations. The government has agreed to 59 recommendations, agreed in principle to 36 and agreed in part to 10, but it only notes the recommendations about women’s accommodation. It does not even agree to them in principle or in part. That is quite a shame and a bit absurd.
The ACT government has also shown a disregard for the community’s safety by failing to adequately equip and support our police. In the 2011-12 ACT Policing contract, total funding of $148,564,000 was allocated. In 2016-17 the contract was $154,932,000. That is an increase of about 4.3 per cent over five years. In that same time inflation in the ACT has increased by about 8.2 per cent. In real terms, that is actually a cut to the police. And this is before we even consider the 11.2 per cent population growth over the same period.
This does not meet community expectations. The ACT government needs to show real support to the police, giving them the authority and resources to best do their jobs. The government has failed to provide for the community’s safety from criminal bikie gangs by refusing to act on our calls and those of others for anti-consorting laws. The Attorney-General has cited human rights concerns for bikies. Yes, really!
This government is out of touch, arrogant, uninterested in good governance, tired and old, and would rather focus on doing inconsistent and unjustifiable deals than on fixing issues with the prison or supporting our police. The government is more
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