Page 2806 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 16 August 2017
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interested in finding ways to support its mates, be it purchasing the CFMEU headquarters and leasing it back to them for a dollar per year or holding a one-off government-supported panel to further the needs of a private golf club which recently converted from Clubs ACT to the Chief Minister’s favoured Canberra Community Clubs.
The government is more interested in burdening the people of Canberra with increases to their rates and land tax well above CPI and the cost of living, hiking up government charges and treating them like an ATM to pay for all of these inconsistent and unjustifiable dodgy deals. The government is more interested in steaming ahead with its public housing agenda without the proper consultation, taking public amenity from communities with no regard for their expectations or the promises that have been made to them.
The government needs to have a bit of an attitude adjustment towards the people of the ACT. It must act to protect the public, must stop making inconsistent and unjustifiable decisions, must become more transparent and must stop giving preferential treatment to its mates. The people of Canberra deserve better.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (3.53): I stand today to speak in support of the motion brought forward by Ms Lawder. Canberrans certainly deserve better than what they have been getting from this government. Other members have already addressed the basic issues such as inconsistency, lack of transparency, failure to provide for basic safety, and blatant disregard, often outright contempt, for many in our community. I know that the Chief Minister said they are doing what Canberrans want them to do. Yet the issues plaguing the youth justice system have been around for years. This may indicate that the government are picky about who and what they listen to.
I wish to speak specifically to section 1(c)(ii) of the motion: the failure to provide an environment inside the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre that guarantees the safety of both the young detainees and the staff who work with them. Much was said on this topic two weeks ago. I therefore will provide simply a brief reminder and overview. First, a place of youth detention should be a place of safety for all inside. Though it should have happened a long time ago, this basic and obvious point has recently been formalised by the ACT government in its new charter of rights for young people in Bimberi.
Second, a right spelled out for detainees in this document is: “You have the right to be kept safe while you are at Bimberi.” The ACT government has repeatedly failed to secure this right for those in the territory’s youth detention centre. In a statement tabled in this Assembly two weeks ago, the Minister for Disability, Children and Youth admitted that in 2015-16 there were at least eight assaults by detainees on other young people in Bimberi. Former youth workers have told me they suspect this is a case of under-reporting.
When faced with a motion of censure, the minister updated the members of this Assembly with more recent information for 2016-17. Unsurprisingly, Bimberi
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