Page 1101 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The legislation is designed to protect emergency and frontline workers who routinely render assistance in volatile and dangerous situations where they are exposed to an increased risk of violence. The legislation is also designed to protect those at high risk in a correctional centre.
In the past there have been incidents at the Alexander Maconochie Centre where detainees have assaulted custodial corrections officers. Thankfully, the numbers are low. In fact, in the last number of years there have been no serious assaults by detainees on prison staff. There have been assaults. Again, those numbers, I am pleased to report, have been decreasing in recent years. This goes to the significant effort that is put into protecting corrections officers and having the right safety systems in place. I am pleased that those numbers have been falling but I am conscious that every day, when corrections officers go to work, there is a risk there for them that something unexpected could happen, just as there is for some of the other professions that we are talking about today. With my particular interest in the corrections space, it is a risk that I am conscious our staff face every single day.
The amendments also provide similar coverage for the occasions on which ACT Corrective Services seeks the assistance of interstate correctional officers. While they are performing their duties under the Corrections Management Act in this territory, they will also be covered by the proposed amendments. Our community corrections officers within ACT Corrective Services are not included in this bill, as they do not have direct contact with detainees and therefore do not come under the same provisions that are being thought about as the other staff here.
The Greens are supporting this bill today. We believe that the process of discussion that has gone on in recent months has ensured that this bill strikes the right balance. It points to the particular risks and vulnerabilities that are faced by some of these particular occupations and gives the recognition of having a particular offence, which will be useful down the line both for frontline staff, perhaps in seeing somebody’s previous record, and also in sending a clear signal from this place to our community that violence against those who are seeking to assist you is not acceptable, that there is no place for it. We want to be absolutely clear, as the parties in this chamber, that we do not condone that violence and, in fact, want to see it stamped out in our community. So the Greens will be supporting the bill today and most of the amendments that are coming through.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Advanced Technology and Space Industries, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.54), in reply: I thank Mrs Jones for working with the government. Our efforts were constructive and collaborative. I acknowledge that Mrs Jones had her own bill that had more expansive coverage. Some of those elements could not be progressed here today. However, this is a place of compromise. I think that what has been achieved by working with Mrs Jones is a balanced and considered protection of police, emergency services and other frontline workers. This is a first step. The review provisions in the bill enable the Assembly to have a mechanism to consider future changes.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video