Shadow Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Steve Edgington, says the Treaty
Minister’s refusal to detail her knowledge of allegations relating to accusations of violent and
abusive behaviour by disgraced Treaty Commissioner, Mick Dodson, is deplorable.
“Today in Estimates, the Minister remained alarmingly silent in relation to alleged threats and
abuse by the Treaty Commissioner towards an Indigenous woman, and tried to palm it off as
a HR issue.
“That’s not good enough. Territorians deserve a Minister who will call out bad behaviour
within her ranks – regardless of the political fallout.
“In her capacity as Attorney-General, the Minister took close to 40 questions on notice, many
relating to the basic functions of her department including: how many correctional staff have
been assaulted in the past financial year, the monthly costs of running Holtze prison, and how
many youth offenders were arrested in the last financial year.
“How can Territorians have confidence the Minister is across her portfolio when she can’t
answer simple questions?
“It was also noted she mispronounced the name of her Acting Deputy Chief Executive Craig
Smyth, the Director of Public Prosecutions Jack Karczewski and Chief Operating Officer Alecia
Brimson. Does the Minister even bother to engage with her department?
“The Minister admitted damage to Holtze prison from the May 2020 riot has blown out to at
least $30 million, although she wouldn’t answer questions around the number of prisoners
who have faced prosecution in relation to the riot. It was also revealed the education and
training areas of the prison remain out of action due to damage sustained in the riot.
“The Attorney-General also refused to comment on what impact the lack of leadership is
having on the department after Opposition questioning uncovered a shambolic recruitment
process. The department has been without a permanent Chief Executive Officer since last
year, and a second recruitment process has begun after the first did not produce a suitable
applicant.
“After another failed recruitment process within the Department that took some six months,
just days ago, an existing employee was finally appointed to be General Manager of Alice
Springs Correctional Centre. Meanwhile, a Deputy Director within the Director of Public Shadow Attorney-General and
Prosecutions was appointed without an open recruitment process, and the Corrections
Commissioner remains on long-term personal leave – with no firm time frame to return.
“The Minister stumbled through questions around Labor’s recent changes to youth justice
and while the Police Minister was able to provide some level of information during her
appearance at Estimates earlier in the week, today the Attorney-General suggested her
department couldn’t capture data around how many youths used the get out of jail free
card of ‘trivial or technical breach, or exceptional circumstances’ since bail laws came into
force last month.
“How can the Gunner Government measure the impact of these legislative changes if
there’s confusion around the collection of data and a complete lack of inter-agency
information sharing,” said Mr Edgington.
ENDS