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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3774 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Dunne! That being the case, you seem to be raising a point of order. Are you?

MRS DUNNE: No, I am not raising a point of order. I am just reflecting on what happened this morning. I call on us all to be a bit more careful about the appropriateness of the devices we use and the remarks we make, and I am calling on you, Mr Speaker, to review the remarks of Mrs Cross and rule on their appropriateness and make a ruling about the device of making a statement which was used this morning, to the disrepute of this house.

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, that came pretty close to criticising the Speaker and the Speaker's rulings. I warn you that that will not be tolerated. I said this morning that if you take issue with any of the language Mrs Cross used in bringing the matter before the Assembly this morning then you should raise the specifics. To say that you are concerned about the criticism level of your group in the Assembly is not an adequate approach to take in relation to a point of order. I had said this before. In this place members are criticised by other members. That is not to say that the standing orders have been breached.

Temporary remand centre

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming and Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Corrections) (5.43): During question time I undertook to provide what information I could in relation to the number of remandees housed on behalf of the ACT. I did at the time thank Mr Smyth for advance notice of the question. I now realise that that was not done out of concern for me but as assurance that I would not take the question on notice, so can I first withdraw those thanks.

I would also like to go the further mile and congratulate Mr Smyth on the apparent information that he has at his disposal. I will try to make sure that information in future is available to government at least as soon as it is available to others, whatever it takes to achieve that appropriate end.

It is the case that as recently as yesterday prisoners were sent to Junee. Although the temporary remand centre is open, there is one glitch-and one would expect that-in the process, and that is the provision of nursing services, particularly nursing services to administer daily injections.

At this stage the protocol for selection of detainees for transfer to the temporary remand centre precludes a number of detainees who would otherwise be able to, because of the need for them to remain at BRC to receive medication. There have been quite extensive negotiations between Health and Corrections to ensure that the appropriate mental health services are there, to ensure that all of the services that are required to house prisoners at the temporary remand centre are in place. Unfortunately they are not. I freely admit to this place that that is something that I would like to have known about sooner.

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