Page 479 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018
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incompetency of this minister has put the community at risk, exposing the public to a dangerous person they should have been protected from.
When the news broke of this inexcusable error on 20 December, Minister Rattenbury told WIN News, “We need to look at our systems now to look at why this happened and to make sure that corrective measures are put in place.” Yes, we do need to look at our systems. Prisoners who are meant to be locked up should not be allowed to just walk out the front door. I would have thought this was prison management 101. It is absolutely astounding.
Given the timing and seriousness of this shocking mistake, with no Assembly sittings coming up for the next two months, I took the unusual step of writing to the Chief Minister with my concerns. The Assembly was adjourned until February and to my mind I had no other means of addressing this critical situation. I wrote to the Chief Minister on 21 December outlining the many recent failings at the Alexander Maconochie Centre under Minister Rattenbury’s watch. I also outlined my concerns about the appropriateness of having him as Minister for Corrections. I sought the Chief Minister’s advice about what was and continues to be quite a serious situation.
Typical of the Chief Minister’s somewhat offhand and inconsiderate approach to governing, he simply responding by saying,
I do not agree with your characterisation of events in this portfolio or your assessment of the Minister.
Really? Does the Chief Minister not agree with the so-called “characterisation of events” in the corrections portfolio? Which part does the Chief Minister not agree with: that in April 2016 a prisoner escaped custody while receiving treatment at the Canberra Hospital mental health unit; that in May 2016 Steven Freeman died while in custody, only two days after commencing the methadone program; that in September 2016 two prisoners escaped from the AMC using construction materials to scale the fence—three fences, in fact; that in May 2017 Mr Mark O’Connor died while in custody, with toxicology testing showing that a mixture of buprenorphine and methamphetamine were in his system at the time of his death; that in July 2017 a prisoner escaped from custody while receiving treatment at the Canberra Hospital; that in August 2017 two Indigenous brothers were bashed in the AMC and subsequently hospitalised, and reporting by the Canberra Times revealed that the mother of those Indigenous brothers was not told of her sons’ bashings by ACTCS until the next day and she was instead informed by a friend; that in August 2017 a prisoner escaped from custody while receiving treatment at the Canberra Hospital; that in November 2017 reports by the Canberra Times showed that an anomaly was discovered in the AMC detainee trust fund and a subsequent forensic investigation into the matter was undertaken; that in December 2017 the minister confirmed that an administration error was made resulting in the incorrect release of a dangerous inmate into the community for some period of time?
Which characterisation of events does the Chief Minister not agree with, or does the Chief Minister think that is fine, and that clearly everything is going okay in our prison? Does the Chief Minister disagree with the fact that inmates have died while in
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