Page 5821 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011

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Mr Smyth interjecting—

MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, sit down, thank you. I have heard your point. I have observed back to you that you may like to go and review the tapes. You will have heard that several times I called Mr Barr back to the question and directed him to answer it when he started to talk about the Liberals. I have also made the same point to the Chief Minister today. Now let us proceed with question time. Minister Burch, you—

Mr Smyth: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I would ask you to review the tape. I respect that you called him to order on relevance. You did not once call him to order on the words he used about me, and I would ask you to review the tape and give us your opinion.

MR SPEAKER: Minister Burch, you have the floor to continue if you wish. All right. We are up to a supplementary question from Mr Doszpot.

MR DOSZPOT: Minister, what are circumstances in which adjoining rooms might be used and what processes are followed in deciding whether to open them?

MS BURCH: I thank Mr Doszpot for his question. The rooms were designed for allowing sibling groups, kin groups, groups or young people who would benefit from closer access to somebody who is important to them and who can offer them additional care and support during their time there.

As far as the decision making goes, that is a conversation with management. It needs to be assessed as to whether it is fair and reasonable for risk with these young people. Then it is a conversation with the young people about how they feel about that and if they would benefit from that directly.

As I said before, Mr Doszpot, if the young people are not interested in that, if they do not think it is of great value to them, then it is not up to management to enforce it on them.

MRS DUNNE: A supplementary question, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, a supplementary question.

MRS DUNNE: Minister, using the expression in your own answer, who are the people who make that choice and what record keeping policies and procedures are laid out to record that choice?

MS BURCH: I thank Mrs Dunne for her question. Those conversations would be had with team leaders and management of Bimberi. It is not for me to be part of those conversations, clearly, but the team leaders as the young people are brought into Bimberi and assessed as to what their needs are and what their risks are. This is all part of that discussion that happens on site with the team leaders and management of Bimberi.


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