Page 3349 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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MR MILLIGAN: Minister, how many times has the protocol on notifying the next of kin of an incident at the AMC been breached since you became the responsible minister?
MR RATTENBURY: I cannot think of any other circumstances where it has arisen; but I will reflect on that and double-check. If I am incorrect about that I will come back to the Assembly, but I cannot think of another occasion.
Alexander Maconochie Centre—Indigenous health care
MR MILLIGAN: My question is to the Minister for Corrections. Minister, I refer to the letter in today’s Canberra Times by the CEO of Winnunga, saying that they are still not involved in the prison. This is despite the recommendations of the Moss report that Winnunga be integrated into prison health care. Minister, when will the recommendations of the Moss report be implemented?
MR RATTENBURY: I am aware of the letter to the editor in today’s paper. I disagreed with some elements of that letter, and I will have that conversation with Ms Tongs when the opportunity arises. I can inform the Assembly that Winnunga is involved in implementing the recommendations of the Moss review. There are nine recommendations in the Moss review. Each of them is in different phases of implementation. There has been solid progress on some of them; others have work to go.
The one that Mr Milligan is referring to is recommendation No 5, around Winnunga being involved in the delivery of health services inside the AMC. There has been a working group established on that. There has been a series of meetings to agree what the parameters for that will be. Some areas have been agreed. With that working group process between the government and Winnunga, there was an independent chair brought in to facilitate those conversations. There is now a set of agreed outcomes, and areas where there is not agreement. Now that work is focusing on the areas where there is not agreement.
It would be fair to tell the Assembly that this is not an easy case. At the moment we have justice health services providing health services for detainees. Winnunga is proposing to operate health services inside the AMC for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees, and they have quite a different model. As the government, we have a duty to make sure that that matches the standards this Assembly will hold us to. At the same time I am extremely keen for Winnunga to participate in the delivery of health services to help us improve the delivery for Indigenous detainees.
MR MILLIGAN: Minister, how many months will it be until Winnunga is fully integrated into the prison system?
MR RATTENBURY: That will depend on how the discussions go. I have had this conversation with both Winnunga and my directorate. I expect this to happen in a timely manner. That means that both sides are going to need to reflect on what is their bottom line, because if either side insists that they will not move on something we will never get an outcome.
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