Page 358 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 2018
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situation, a riot, a fire or a serious assault. This function will also provide insight into broader systemic issues that may be raised by individual incidents.
The inspectorate model also recognises the importance of having a diverse monitoring team made up of a range of professionals with a range of cultural backgrounds and life experiences. If a matter involving a detainee requires examination or review by the inspector, the inspector may be required to consult with or include staff with the appropriate experience and/or cultural background of that detainee. An expression of interest for the position of a suitably qualified inspector was advertised nationally and closed in November 2017. I hope to make an announcement about this important appointment soon.
Further to this, Australia’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment—otherwise known as OPCAT—in December 2017 will now allow visits from the United Nations subcommittee on the prevention of torture. The Monitoring Places of Detention (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture) Bill 2017 debated in this chamber last week provides for UN subcommittee visits and enables their access to places of detention and to information, including detainee records, and to interview detainees and other people.
The OPCAT provides a framework for the preventive approach to oversight which entails visits, including unannounced visits, to all places where people are deprived of their liberty in order to assess risks of ill-treatment and make recommendations for improvement. This will provide further transparency and accountability and contribute to strengthening and improving oversight arrangements not only at the AMC but also in other places of detention in time.
With respect to recommendation 7, the Health Services Commissioner has initiated an own-motion investigation into matters relating to the delivery of health services within the AMC, including matters associated with methadone prescription. I understand the commissioner’s final report will be released this month, and I look forward to receiving it to consider any recommendations made.
The Moss review concluded that AMC management needs to meet the obligations of both detainee safety and human rights protection. Recommendation 6 suggests that in order to achieve this balance ACT Corrective Services needs to establish a separate remand prison within the AMC to ensure remanded detainees are segregated from sentenced detainees.
To respond to this recommendation, and to provide advice and further options for government around the AMC, an external consultant was engaged to undertake a feasibility study around the AMC centre logic. ACT Corrective Services received one-off funding of $700,000 in 2017-18 to progress this work, which will provide options for government to consider infrastructure needs for the AMC for the next five to 20 years. In addition, reforms have already commenced within the AMC to help satisfy the long-term intent of recommendation 6 and related conclusions to enhance detainee management and security.
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