It has been revealed in Estimates Hearings the Chair of the new Oversight Committee to tackle issues plaguing the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) will be paid $2000 per day plus GST of taxpayers money to do a job the ACT Government should already be doing, Shadow Corrections Minister Elizabeth Kikkert said today.

“I fear that creating an oversight committee is the Minister’s way of being totally hands-off in his management of the AMC and not taking any personal responsibility for the failures of the Government,” Mrs Kikkert said.

“The Government has already taken too long to respond to the 2019 finding that custodial officers feel inadequately trained.

“What needs to be done is crystal clear. We have reports from the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services, we have the RoGS reports, we have surveys from both inmates and staff, and we have a litany of failures written about in the media.

“Why does the Minister need another layer of bureaucracy that has the potential to slow things down even more? Any delay in the process is putting AMC staff and their workplace safety at even more risk.

“The Minister already knows what needs to be improved, and he has the resources he needs to implement these changes: his staff, the directorate staff and the Inspector.

“His appointment of Ms Nixon as the head of the committee is unsurprising. In her time as the Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, a Royal Commission was critical of her ‘hands off approach’.

“This is a demonstration of the Government’s inability to get the job done right themselves,” Mrs Kikkert concluded.