Page 2423 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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I extend my thanks to the government for taking seriously the concerns from the AMC staff that I have presented and for supporting my motion. The Greens talk about the human rights of the detainees. That is fine and I support that. But let’s also remember the human rights of the corrections officers who are dealing with dangerous situations on a daily basis. We do not know what they go through, so it is important for us to listen to them.
I look a tour of AMC twice this year and we walked past the psychological unit where detainees receive counselling. There were three rooms and two or three psychologists. I am not sure what Mr Braddock meant when he talked about having one psychologist per 500 when there are about 321 detainees at AMC. Let us remember the human rights of the corrections officers as well as those of the detainees.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Light rail—traffic planning
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (4.44): I move:
Omit all words after “study”.
With this amendment, the government will be agreeing to the motion.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (4.45): The Greens will be supporting Mr Hanson’s motion today and also Mr Gentleman’s amendment. Standing order 213A was put in place for exactly these circumstances, where there is a contest about whether a document should be revealed or supplied and there may be a claim of privilege and the like. It takes it out of the political arena and puts it into a more objective arena. It has only been used, I think, about four or five times since it was brought into place in around 2010. On each occasion, I think, it has provided an opportunity to resolve a dispute about a document. I think Mr Gentleman’s amendment just speaks to the practicality. I understand there is support for that amendment across the chamber as well.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.45): I am most pleased that we are going to arrive at this position; but I cannot really believe that we had to go down this path to get to this point when the minster could well have taken the question seriously in the chamber. The minister took the question to mean simply the outcomes of that study when, very clearly, we were calling for a much more substantive document. I think that at its core this little debate is about transparency, but it is also about democracy. The minister does not own that data; the people of the ACT own it.
The minister often comes in here and says, “We’re getting on with the job of building this and the Liberals are not building anything.” I would remind the minister that he is in government and we are in opposition. From opposition, we cannot build anything.
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