I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. These words are attributed to Jesus, and they sit behind my contribution to today's debate.
It is an honour to have the opportunity to speak on this Greens bill today; a bill that will make our state a safer, more inclusive island.
Before I commence, I want to acknowledge the victim/survivors and people with lived experience who are in the Chamber today and who are watching us online.
Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples released a damning statement on the nationwide crisis in youth justice
A new RTI by the Greens shows the corrections system is in crisis, with over 6,000 prison lockdowns occurring in 2024.
There might not be an excuse for government delay on working through and enacting a human rights act for Tasmania but there are reasons that are reasonably easy to understand.
Minister for Corrections, Madeleine Ogilvie MP, admitted in Legislative Council Budget Estimates today that it is unacceptable for the National Preventative Mechanism not to have the funding it needs to prevent the inhumane treatment or torture of Tasmanians in places where their freedoms are restricted.
I want to go back to the National Preventative Mechanism. The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment requires that state parties undertake to make available the necessary resources for the functioning of the national preventative mechanism. Minister, you failed to do this, but your government can find $4 million for a chocolate fountain at Cadbury.
Minister, do you concede that the allocation of two and a-half million dollars less than what the NPM needed means that your government has funded it to the extent that it cannot perform its statutory obligations; and that is to prevent the inhumane or degrading treatment where their liberty may have been taken away from them.
The Rockliff Government’s decision to not appropriately resource the Office of the Tasmanian National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) is alarming and should be immediately addressed.