Page 1974 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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I am very aware of the sensitivities around these matters. Fundamentally, people with a mental illness face many barriers around stigmatisation and stereotyping and we need in all respects to try to be sensitive to those circumstances and difficulties that people with mental illness face, particularly with more acute and severe levels of mental illness.
But there is also a need to recognise that where people have committed a wrong but are unable to be convicted of that wrong because of their mental illness there is still potential for harm in the future and there is still harm that has been done. Even if there has not been a conviction because of the person’s state of mind, there has still been that harm that has to be managed and addressed in the broader interests of the community. That is, of course, the purpose of the new secure mental health unit.
The government have made a significant commitment in the budget to provide for the staffing and operations of that unit, and we are finalising those arrangements as the physical building comes to completion in the coming months.
Yes, many of the elements of this legislation are in some ways at least analogous with provisions for a correctional facility. That is by necessity a requirement recognising that the people who are resident in this facility are there against their will. It is a result of orders made by the tribunal, in many instances following a decision of the court about their fitness to be convicted of a particular offence. It is important, recognising the acute nature of that illness in many instances. And the challenges in managing it are that a higher level of safety and security is required than would exist for lower level acuteness and in a non-forensic setting.
That said, I am grateful for the work that has been done by the Health Directorate and its officials in looking at and drawing upon the experience and the governance frameworks for similar facilities interstate. It is important that we look at those jurisdictions that have had long-held experience in the operation of forensic mental health facilities to establish a model that works best for us. I am confident that we have struck that balance appropriately.
I am particularly grateful for the work that has been done by the Health Directorate and its officials in engaging in the human rights implications of this legislation and working through how those limitations are manifest when it comes to the impact on mental health consumers. Again I believe that we have demonstrated the strength of our human rights framework in testing the legislation through that framework. I thank members overall for their support of the legislation and I commend it to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
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