Page 1671 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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the Greens have given up on that task. In fact, they spent most of their time not covering the litany of problems going on at the ACT jail—
Ms Bresnan: What happened at privileges? No-one was in the building.
Ms Hunter: You were on holiday.
MR HANSON: Madam Deputy Speaker, you ought to warn them like you warn us. They did not cover the problems that are occurring in the jail and the mismanagement and the failure to introduce proper rehabilitation programs and so on. What you see is the Greens doing the bidding of their political masters. They spent most of their time—just as they are doing now—interjecting and heckling and attacking the Liberals. Mark this day: 4 May 2010 is the day that any pretence that the Greens have that they are going to attempt to hold this government to account can be gone. Anyone listening to this speech now—the media up there, whoever it may be—this is a day to mark in your diary. All the Greens are interested in is getting everything they can out of this government and giving them their continued support. They did not even make a pretence about being interested in any of the concerns.
I did list the previous issues that have been covered previously, but Ms Hunter pretended this is not a new motion. She ignored the fact that there was a wrongful release of a prisoner—she did not even mention that. She ignored the falsification of documents over the death in custody; the allegations of rape and abuse; the fact that the judiciary is now warning the government that continuation will lead to an effect on sentencing decisions; the lockdown of prisoners; the fact that there are staff problems—the union is concerned and the staff are concerned to the extent that they supported the protest on the roof; and the delay and the disruption to rehabilitation programs. The Greens are ignoring all of that and just say, “We’ve heard it all before.” We have not heard that before; this is entirely new.
I have been provided this email from someone saying—in fact, I will not even bother dealing with that. How the Greens can think that I am getting my information either from the committee or from someone in a random email that is not even signed—we do not have the information of who it is—is just a bizarre allegation. I will not deal with it any further. I am happy to offline, though. If you want to make further allegations either in this place or outside, I am very happy to deal with it. If you are trying to allege something, let me assure you that I am very happy to deal with that.
Turning back to the government, though, what we have seen is the dismissive approach to what the opposition is doing. The opposition are holding a minister to account. That is our job; that is our responsibility in this Assembly. Mr Stanhope and Mr Corbell are dismissive about it. They are not taking it seriously. It is quite clear that Mr Stanhope has given up on any pretence of holding his ministers to account and making sure that they adhere to any semblance of ministerial responsibility. In fact, they sat there and laughed and they thought it was a big joke that we should be concerned that there are allegations about a prisoner being raped.
The real concern is that the allegations are against someone who has previously raped a prisoner at the Belconnen Remand Centre. It is someone who has been convicted of
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