Page 3335 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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desperate families and individuals seeking to access asylum, their international legal and human right?
ACT Labor does not support this policy. Our view is that the concerns outlined by the UNHCR earlier this month, combined with the record of events built up over years now, warrant the end to this policy. We support a return to a political consensus—which existed up until two decades ago—that the safe settlement of refugees in Australia is something that we are not only obliged to offer but from which we greatly benefit. The ACT government will continue to work where we can to advocate this position and provide a safe and welcoming space for peoples from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds. I support the motion and thank Mr Rattenbury again for bringing it to the Assembly.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (11.50): The Canberra Liberals are proud of our commitment to freedom, fairness, justice and the rule of law. We seek to apply these principles in our work in the Assembly for the people of Canberra whom we represent. We are all elected to ensure that the territory’s laws and the territory’s government are working for the best interests of all Canberrans. On this side of the chamber we are very proud of our commitment to a multicultural Canberra, and we are very proud of the diversity that we bring to the Assembly. On this side we have someone born in Tonga, someone born in Korea, someone born in the UK, someone born in Hungary, and two second-generation Italians. By all accounts that is regarded as a pretty diverse team. And it is this experience that I think ensures that our team remains absolutely committed to the principle of multiculturalism here in the ACT. It is certainly something we strive to live out in the policies that we bring to this place.
Whilst the subject of today’s motion is an extremely important issue—nobody would deny that—it is almost entirely a federal issue. The constitution is pretty clear about that. We on this side sympathise with the plight of those in detention, wherever they are. We also acknowledge that successive governments have had a policy in place which has led to where we are today, but those are federal governments. These are federal Liberal and federal Labor governments. Whilst we all have personal views about federal issues and, indeed, international issues, we in this place are not kept abreast of all the facts and details to make fully informed decisions on everything.
Whilst there might be sniggering in the gallery by people who claim to be tolerant, I think there is a fact here that we have a prime responsibility to the people of Canberra to ensure that we are doing all we can within the ACT. That is why I want to bring forward a few issues today where this territory, this jurisdiction, has got it wrong with regard to detention. Right now we have a prison not far from here that has accommodation for 29 women. It was planned for 29 women, but there have been 45 women crammed into that space. Women have been detained in the management unit and in the health unit for several days or weeks at a time.
In the past year and a half we have had two deaths at our very own prison here in Canberra. Two deaths. Under the territory’s watch, two people have died. We have had a successful escape and we have had a couple of other escapes from the hospital in recent weeks. Just yesterday it was reported in the paper that two Aboriginal men were bashed and that the department did not notify their families until the next day. It
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