Page 1408 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
we would have—we would certainly aim for that, that would be our intent and that is what we would drive for—what we will not have is a jail where drugs are freely available. And that is the current situation under the failure of the administration of Simon Corbell.
So it seems that their response to this is a needle and syringe program. But we do not quite know. The Greens’ position is quite clear. They want one. They want a needle and syringe program. The Liberal position is also very clear. We do not support it, for very good reasons.
What is the Labor position? We have been talking about this for about two years now and we still do not know what the government’s position is on a needle and syringe program. And I would invite the minister to tell us today: will Labor be introducing a needle and syringe program or not? What is their position?
How long are they going to go on talking about this without making a decision and causing the sort of disruption and disturbance that we are seeing, particularly for the staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre? There is no question that, although this is being agitated for by the left of the ALP, by Simon Corbell and Katy Gallagher who want it, when you listen to what Corrective Services are saying, this is what they say. I will read from a letter from the chief executive in December:
At its simplest your report recommends instigation of the trial program. Both staff and agency management have major concerns with this proposal and have made their opposition to the proposal clear.
So this minister has failed in his management of the AMC. He has not got a solution. He is talking about a needle and syringe program that he has not got the heart to pursue. And this minister deserves to be censured.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.41): The Greens will not be supporting this motion. Paragraph (1) refers to the Burnet report, but we have not seen a proper copy of it. It has not been made public. We did ask Ms Gallagher and Mr Corbell to make it public on Tuesday. They have not chosen to do that. Mr Hanson presented me with a copy yesterday in question time, so I have had this report for less than a day; how long he has actually had that report is the issue. There have been bits and pieces of the report dribbled out through the media, and overall I have to say this has been a particularly poor and inappropriate way to have a debate on such a complex and serious issue.
The government have not released this report. The opposition have dribbled out bits and pieces. This is not the way we should be having a debate about this very serious issue. We do want to see the report fully released to the public before we have a full debate about it in this chamber, because with these particular reports the Greens do, as a matter of practice, consult with the community sector who have the expertise on these issues, and that is what we should be doing in this instance.
The Greens’ policies in relation to the AMC have been developed over the last six years or more, hand in hand with key experts from the community sector, through groups such as ACTCOSS, Corrections Coalition, community organisations and the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video