The ACT Human Rights Commission strongly supports the call (made in your editorial of June 3) for improved assessment and data collection in relation to the prevalence of disability in the prison population in the ACT, as recommended by the Auditor-General in 2015.
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This data is vital to identify issues of systemic discrimination and service gaps that result in an overrepresentation of people with a disability in the criminal justice system.
In 2014 the commission’s Human Rights Audit on the Conditions of Detention of Women at the AMC recommended that Corrective Services screen new and current detainees using the Hayes Ability Screening Index (HASI) which is a widely used screening test for intellectual disability.
We also recommended the development of a Disability Action Plan to ensure that the AMC provides the best possible service to detainees and visitors with disability.
An understanding of the needs and capacity of each detainee is also critical to ensure that rehabilitation services provided to detainees are effective, and that reasonable adjustments are made to allow detainees with disability to participate in programs, education and work opportunities within the prison. To ensure a human rights compliant prison, these issues must be urgently addressed.
Dr Helen Watchirs, ACT president and Human Rights Commissioner, Canberra
Spoilt brat needs smack
The photo says it all – a little spoilt brat Trump being told off by bossy headmistress Angela Merkel. Pity he couldn’t be given a rap over the knuckles with the old-fashioned ruler.
David Roberts, Belconnen
Recalcitrant student
How did we get to the point where the supposed leader of the free world is a person whose vocabulary (let alone level of thought content) is that of a grade 2 primary student?
Not only do words like ‘‘bad’’, ‘‘good’’, ‘‘great’’, ‘‘nice’’, ‘‘big’’, ‘‘small’’, predominate in his pronouncements to the world, but his comment at the G7 Summit re Russia rejoining the G7, ‘‘ I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good for the United States. I think it would be good for all of the countries of the current G7’’, probably heralds his relinquishment of any claim to world leadership.
Bring on the energised G6 — heirs to the US as leaders of the world’s democratic nations!
Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir
Dealing with waste
The proposal to allow a private company to take all waste from Mugga Lane tip and have it processed in a mixed waste facility in Fyshwick is a very dangerous step.
(‘‘Residents speak out against Fyshwick recycling plant’’, June 2, p14).
The attempted or assumed abrogation of legal responsibility for mixed waste treatment and the shifting of that responsibility to a private company after enormous public investment in collections, recycling programs, facilities and environmental protection will inevitably end in tears.
Responsibility for waste facilities in the ACT ultimately rests with federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg.
The decision to leave the legal responsibility for waste disposal with the federal government was made when the ACT was forced into self-government.
It was recognised that the potential for a financial and environmental disaster in landfill and waste mismanagement was a very real possibility that the ACT could never have the financial depth to cover.
Handing this responsibility to the private sector will curtail all future avenues for recycling and open the door to a potentially dioxin and furan-polluting incinerator.
Its output of ash will only be a short distance from federal Parliament House and just near residential homes.
Has anyone asked Josh Frydenberg if he is OK with the legalities and liabilities in such a proposal?
Gerry Gillespie,
Queanbeyan, NSW
Aiming in new direction
I thank Kym Mitchell (Letters, June 7) for an informative addition in the conversation concerning the purpose and direction of the Australian War Memorial.
I had been swayed by the mere opinion – disguised as force of logic – in Dr Wareham’s plea, but now I know the War Memorial has acquired a new mission: to tell the story of our military exploits wherever these occur. It is proper it attract the patronage of arms manufacturers given their contribution to our national defence, and the role they have been playing in conflicts overseas where our forces serve.
It was against the spirit of the age to restrict it to its original purpose (commemorating national sacrifices in war).
I was reassured to learn the weapons merchants’ presence is off limits in the memorial part (which deals with consequences of armed engagement and asks why), but in full display in the theatres where Australian children can learn to honour those in uniform required to operate them.
I was until that moment stuck in the past where the symbol of a holed wooden landing boat from a futile campaign meant more than the sophisticated guidance systems now economising efforts to subdue the foe.
We marvelled that soldiers could retain their humanity and that their fight, however valiant, could be put aside at the silencing of guns. We honour this, and them.
How mawkish of me.
So Australian War Memorial people, keep those turnstiles clicking, the recruitment desks busy and root out the mention of horror and waste in avoidable conflict.
Stephen Horn, Melba
Fifield looking foolish
Communications Minister Senator Mitch Fifield seems to think that by presuming to judge the ABC by repeatedly complaining about its alleged misreporting, he can show his toughness and do what no previous minister has found it necessary to do: namely to get away with a political attack on the integrity of the ABC.
He presumably does this in order to please the right wing of the Liberal Party, who might be overjoyed if the ABC lost funding or was otherwise intimidated into silence.
His latest foray, claiming the Prime Minister did not decide byelection dates, shows how desperate he is.
Of course, forcing the Labor Party to change its long-fixed national conference date to avoid a clash, was an act of ‘‘political bastardry’’.
In the meantime, minister Fifield looks foolish as the ABC, quite rightly, ignores his ill-advised tantrum.
Trevor Wilson, Chifley
Arsenic dangers linger
I note the ACT government is considering a review of possible sites where PFAS (Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl) chemicals may have been used.
Whilst it is at it, it may like to extend its investigation into possible adverse health outcomes to the residents of many households that have been constructed on and around the many former sheep dip sites located around Canberra.
When we and our fellow neighbours built our new homes many years ago on and around a former sheep dip site we were not aware of the possible adverse health outcomes of arsenic, one of the chemicals used in sheep dip.
We and our fellow neighbours (all in our early 20s) lived in these homes for over 20 years. Some still live there. We raised our children, planted our gardens and had many neighbourhood gatherings. In response to our concerns the ACT government has effectively said, ‘‘so what?’’.
The ‘‘what’’ is that there have been nine cases of known cancers diagnosed within our adult neighbourhood group living adjacent to this site, including two bowel, two breast, one brain and four prostate cancers including myself, all contracted at a relatively young age.
Two of our friends and neighbours did not survive.
When our concerns were raised with ACT’s health minister, Ms Fitzharris, the multipage response we received from her chief medical officer was that there was little or no risk from exposure to old sheep dip sites, particularly given that the sites had been ‘‘remediated’’ and in addition the incident of cancer in our then suburb was no more and no less than any other suburb in Canberra.
Well at a ‘‘strike rate’’ of 60per cent plus, God help the rest of Canberra.
Peter Toscan, Amaroo
Give us open spaces
I recently went down to the Museum at Acton Peninsula to find a large area at the entrance was excavated with slabs of concrete dug up.
I was so pleased to learn this area is being removed to plant Australian natives. Another beautiful spot in Canberra is the sculpture garden full of Australian natives at the National Gallery of Australia.
If only this could happen in densely built areas such as Civic, Belconnen and Woden town centres. The original open space planning for Canberra has been replaced by ugly high-rise towers. Do the planners and developers really expect children to grow up like prisoners in these towers?
Another example of good planning in Canberra is the large rectangle of two to three-storey townhouses near O’Connor shops. They are painted lovely colours with their own small gardens and inside the rectangle is a huge courtyard area of green lawn and large trees where children can play and adults meet and yarn, have picnics and enjoy communal activities.
For every three to four blocks of housing in new suburbs in Canberra, a park should have been created.
Penelope Upward, O’Connor
Churches’ true colours
The only good thing about the Coalition’s decision to cut support to asylum seekers is that it has given churches a chance to show their true colours.
Christianity is on the nose, quite justifiably, at the moment because of the historical sexual abuse, support of the ‘‘No’’ campaign, harassment of women seeking family planning advice and the continued (disgraceful) anti-women and anti-gay stance of some churches.
But it is many of the Canberra churches who are stepping up to feed and house the people abandoned by the government.
There are still many Christians who heed the prophet Micah’s call to ‘‘do justice and to love mercy’’ and Jesus’ call to feed the hungry.
Keith Binns, Goulburn
Ginninderra future
ACT residents are keenly waiting for quick building of commercial space at CSIRO Ginninderra as the site is not utilised properly currently. William Slim Drive must be duplicated immediately for this and buses started on the Barton Highway immediately for residents.
There is an acute shortage of commercial properties in this region and this is an ideal location for the government to get more federal departments in this area. Please build commercial properties quickly at the site as residents are keenly waiting.
Erin Clarke, Canberra
Aussie moon shot
With the passing of Alan Bean, there are just four people who have walked on the surface of the moon left.
The 50th anniversary of one of the greatest achievements in human history, the first moon landing, is next year and it is fitting to celebrate the efforts of Australians who were part of the Apollo program which is little remembered today.
John Colvin was one, an ophthalmologist, who had developed a pair of anti-glare glasses for the RAAF.
On his own initiative he developed a set of anti-glare glasses for the Apollo astronauts which he forwarded to NASA for their consideration without any contract.
The anti-glare glasses were adopted by NASA for use on all Apollo missions.
Rohan Goyne, Evatt
Roads mean more roads
So the ACT government is to spend a significant amount of money on roadworks to improve connections and thus reduce congestion.
Duplicating roads does not improve connections or reduce congestion. What it does is to allow (encourage) more of us to drive our cars at the same time until the road is again congested — that usually occurs within a few years of the duplication occurring.
What is required to reduce congestion and improve the amenity of our city is better public transport and cycling facilities, as pointed out by Graham Downie (Letters, June 1).
For every person in a bus or tram or on a bicycle there is one less car on the roads, resulting in less expenditure on roadworks and less congestion.
Please spend tax money on things like bus lanes and priority for buses at intersections, that will make bus trips faster and so encourage more people to ride, and on cycle paths that will encourage more people to commute by bicycle and not drive their cars.
John Widdup, Lyneham