Page 1473 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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concerned that the more this becomes politicised, the more the people who work in and dedicate their working lives to the youth justice system in this town and the young people who are in that system or have contact with that system and their families are being demonised, the more unfair it becomes.
We should be allowing the inquiry to get on. We are almost there. We are only about two months or so from when they will be reporting to this Assembly. As I have outlined, they have had a number of meetings, discussions and forums. People have filled out surveys. They no doubt are ploughing through a whole lot of information. They no doubt are looking at best practice around the country, best practice internationally and the sorts of supports and professional developments that need to be in place for staff—whether induction can be improved, whether a whole range of policies and procedures, processes, programs, vocational education and training programs and education programs can be developed. But let us just leave them to get on with it. This team is a highly professional team, they have the expertise, so let us let them get on with the job and let us see what comes back once this inquiry finishes in June.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.48): The Canberra Liberals will not be supporting this amendment from Ms Hunter. I think it is worth noting that the amendment proposed by the Greens is just a continuation of the cover-up which has been engaged in by this government and which the Greens are now 100 per cent complicit in by not even understanding or bothering to consider the terms of the motion put forward by Mrs Dunne.
Ms Hunter, in seeking to take out all of the words of the motion, is ignoring the central point, and the central point is that there have been significant ongoing claims from current and former staff members and teachers that they are not always made aware of the policies and procedures prior to commencing work at Bimberi. They are not always made aware of amendments to those policies and procedures in a timely manner. They do not always receive proper training in respect of those policies and procedures and the amendments thereto.
That is what this motion is about. It is about the minister providing the information that shows not just what the policies and procedures are but when staff were told about them and how they were given information so that they could use it and so they could implement these policies and procedures. The Greens and the Labor Party are now, in their attempt to cover this up again, going to abolish this whole motion, ignore those concerns and just say, “No, no, we’ll leave it to the inquiry.” Well, the inquiry is a whitewash. There is no doubt about it. It is a whitewash, and the Greens in their cosy relationship with the Labor Party are far more interested in protecting their Labor mates and protecting their mates in the Human Rights Commission than getting to the bottom of this information.
Let us actually look at what has happened here and what the Greens and the Labor Party are attempting to cover up again today. We had a debate earlier today about open government, and we heard all the principles about open government. But every time it involves the Greens’ interests and the Labor Party’s interests, they get together to cover it up. This procedure in relation to Bimberi has been one cover-up after
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