Page 5302 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 29 November 2017
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I call on the minister to develop a comprehensive employment and education strategy as part of a full daily routine for prisoners so that our prison can reach full employment. There is no excuse for a prisoner who is able to work not to work. We need to get our prisoners out of bed and into work; out of boredom, into education and rehabilitation.
Finally, I call on the minister to advise the Assembly of the issues of the trust accounting policing at the AMC and what policies or procedures have changed since the identification and investigation of the so-called anomaly. Friends of mine who regularly visit detainees say they have heard it is a common view of detainees that their money is often missing from the account. I would like to know that that has changed, but that is the feedback they have given. How many people have access to the trust account and how often is it checked? What record keeping is there? How do detainees access or spend their money? The minister needs to explain the issues and what has been done in the wake of the KPMG investigation. If money is or was being diverted or lost or stolen, we must know about it. If that was the case, what has changed since and what systems have been put in place to ensure it never happens again?
Too often we bring up these issues and problems with the management of the facility and it seems to take quite a while to get a solution going. The minister rarely comes clean about a problem until it is uncovered by the press or me, and the fixes are slow. I acknowledge that there is work going on now, but I want to make it clear that it has been five years of the same minister’s management, so it is not somebody else’s fault. The Assembly deserves answers and actions on the many problems at the AMC, and the people of Canberra, who have paid for the AMC and rely on it functioning properly, deserve actions and answers. The minister cannot jump from crisis to crisis; he needs to find proper solutions and accept that as the minister for this facility for those five years it is his responsibility that the facility is the way it is and has had the problems of the last year.
I look forward to increases in industry programs, an introduction of a proper working day, higher engagement in work programs and serious educational pursuits. This is the very least the general community would expect. I am also looking forward to some assurances from the minister that he will have fewer major problems in the AMC in the next year than he has seen over this year. And just to foreshadow our position on the minister’s amendment, we will not be supporting it.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Minister for Corrections and Minister for Mental Health) (6.08): I move the amendment circulated in my name:
Omit all words after (1), substitute:
“(1) notes:
(a) the ACT has a relatively young corrections system, with the first jail commissioned in 2009;
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