Page 2683 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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There are also changes happening because of this quite disturbing event on 5 February. Ms Burch is now trying to make a virtue out of necessity. She has been forced to up the staffing ratios. She has been forced to do more recruiting. She has been forced to take the absolutely appropriate position of ensuring that no undertrained staff are put in this dangerous situation. We should never have been in the situation where any member of staff was beaten in the way that this unfortunate man was beaten on 5 February.
It is more culpable because he was undertrained. He did not have the appropriate equipment. He was undertrained. He was a contractor who should not have been there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had nothing going for him. These issues have not been addressed. It is incumbent upon the minister to come out and provide the whole report so that the committee can look at the report and so that we can find out for ourselves conclusively whether the person involved in this had a duress alarm—because the answers to questions are equivocal on this matter—and whether this person had a radio, and get answers on a whole range of other issues to questions that we have persistently asked. These are not answered in the minister’s statement today; they were not answered in the minister’s statement back in April. The Canberra Liberals will continue to pursue this matter because of the severity of the issue.
In concluding, I put on the record that the Canberra Liberals will require from the minister an answer as to what has happened to the staff who had disciplinary action taken against them and what has happened to the young people who were the perpetrators of this dreadful assault.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (4.30): It is good to see an update on the terrible incident that happened on 5 February and to see that some action has been taken. I was also pleased to see that there is a training officer who has been appointed out at Bimberi; that officer will assist in the delivery of training and ensuring that all staff training needs are identified and followed through on. It is essential that we have staff who have got these skills and who have got the knowledge necessary in order to do their jobs properly. It is also a way to ensure that we support staff who are working in very complex environments, doing very difficult jobs.
I know that under a previous update from the minister, I did raise my concern when it talked about some suicide awareness training; my concern that that was not already in place and had not been in place with previous workers; and so forth. I am pleased to see that there is an applied suicide intervention skills program that has been conducted—and I hope that is a regular thing because, as we know, staff do turn over in Bimberi—and to see regular training programs, formal training programs and informal training programs.
I note that a lot of this training will get formal accreditation through the CIT, and that is a good thing. It ensures that there is a quality of training. It also ensures that those workers who are undertaking that training do get recognition for the training they have undertaken. And certainly it shows that we will have a skilled workforce in place.
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