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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (23 August) . . Page.. 3237 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

the administration and operation for Youth Justice Services remains separate from the administration of adult corrections.

That tells me that they need to be separate. The report also says, at 3.10:

no cross utilisation of staff between Quamby and Adult Corrections as staff in the two sectors require fundamentally different skills;

I was thrilled to pieces to see that in there because they do require fundamentally different skills. The base skills would be the same, but the target for the application of those skills is completely different and the outcomes are completely different.

I congratulate the committee on what I think is an excellent report; I congratulate the secretariat because I know it is very difficult for a secretary to try to stitch together all the views of a committee. I congratulate the staff of Quamby, of the Department of Justice and Community Safety and of the Department of Education and Community Services, who have between them turned this place around 180 degrees in the five years. I would like the record to show that, if the government and the opposition differ on anything, it is in a race to make sure that these people get the best opportunity and the best resources to do an even better job.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Attorney-General) (10.57): I thank Mr Hargreaves for his gracious comments. In fact, I thank him for the gracious comments he made on Quamby in about August 1999, when Mr Rugendyke and I were at a parliamentary conference. It is appropriate that the staff in Education and the staff in Justice are complimented for turning around the situation in Quamby. Having had something to do with Quamby up to August or September 1999, I noticed some considerable changes there and, hopefully, had a hand in driving some of them.

There were some real problems there in the mid-90s. The institution was not being run as well as it could have been. Some of the personnel were, to put it kindly, not really suited to that type of work, and a lot of things needed to be done. It is a shame that a young person died, probably needlessly, because of the ineptitude of certain people there. This, whilst tragic, acted as a catalyst for further and dramatic improvements. And they were dramatic-the entire culture was changed. A lot of excellent hard work was put in by Michael White, who has now moved on to bigger and better things in Victoria, and I compliment him on the effort he put in.

In March 1999, I think it was, an excellent general manager or boss-I do not know what you call it these days-was appointed to Quamby, and I pay tribute to Frank Duggan and the drive he has shown in that institution. New staff have been recruited-well-trained staff. Sadly, I was unable to attend the certificate 3 or certificate 4 graduation of Quamby staff. I think everyone now has some qualification for working with youth and troubled youth, through the CIT. Those are some of the significant improvements that have been made.

A lot of the staff are new. I was just talking to Frank and to Charlie Shore, who is the deputy manager there. I congratulate Charlie on his recent promotion. Damn fine rugby forward, too. John, you would like him; he is with Tuggeranong. There are still about five of the original old staff there, but there are a lot of really keen new staff. The place is going very well.

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