Page 2653 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022

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MR COCKS: Minister, we all know where good intentions can lead. Given you do not have this data, will you stop pursuing clubs to try and force them to spend more than $70 million of their own money, until you collect and review data, and then will you consider dropping your legislation because it is an excessive use of the law?

MR RATTENBURY: Mr Cocks had built a lot of assumptions into his question, including the proposed cost of the scheme.

Mr Parton interjecting—

MADAM SPEAKER: Members! You asked the question; have the decency to be quiet to listen to the answer.

MR RATTENBURY: At this point, for example, the $70 million figure that Mr Cocks has cited is not a figure the government accepts. The government sought independent advice from a well-recognised company that works in the gaming machine space in Australia. They indicated a range of costs that they felt this transition could be made for. People have come back with alternative cost analyses. Some of those are much higher. One might have views on why those estimates are much higher. That is why we are now setting up a technical working group. We are seeking to work collaboratively with the industry here in the ACT to work through the details. There probably is a really expensive way to do this, and there is a cost-effective way to do it. We are most interested in finding the cost-effective way to do it, and we intend to collaborate with the industry to find the pathway to the most cost-effective implementation.

Bimberi Youth Justice Centre—spit hoods

MR BRADDOCK: My question is to the Minister for Justice Health. Minister, given that, during estimates, evidence was heard from the Chief Police Officer of a spit hood being used on a 16-year-old, I would like to ask: what are you doing as youth justice minister to ensure that we respect the human rights of children and young people in the youth justice system by not using spit hoods?

MS DAVIDSON: Thank you, Mr Braddock, for the question. I can confirm that as the first youth detention centre that was developed under human rights legislation, Bimberi does not, and has never, approved the use of spit hoods. I did write to the Human Rights Commission a couple of months ago to let them know that I would be seeking to have the notifiable instrument updated to make that clearer, but Bimberi does not, and has never, approved the use of spit hoods. The reason for that is that a lot of the young people that end up in the youth justice system have complex needs. Those can include mental health conditions, disability, the impacts of drug and alcohol use and a background with quite a lot of trauma. All of that can result in a lot of difficulty in self-regulating behaviour when they are feeling anxious or distressed.

If someone were in that situation and an adult in a position of authority were to put a bag over their head, that would not help. That would make them feel even more distressed and more anxious. It would make it even harder for them to understand the situation they were in, and to behave in a way that does not put them or anyone else at risk. I very much look forward to being able to discuss this with the police


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