Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Corrections system

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:00): (89) My question today is for the Minister for Corrections. Minister, Thomas Embling Hospital is home to some of Victoria’s highest profile prisoners and houses dozens of serious criminals deemed unfit for mainstream prisons. Why then has your government let the staffing situation in corrections become so poor that one of its psychiatric units has been closed since January, with those who were housed there sent back to the mainstream system?

Enver Erdogan: Responsibility for Thomas Embling is actually a matter for the Minister for Mental Health. As Minister for Corrections I am not in charge of or responsible for that facility. It should be directed to the Minister for Mental Health.

The PRESIDENT: I ask the minister that represents the Minister for Mental Health to take the question.

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:01): Thank you, Dr Bach, for your interest in the Thomas Embling facility. I will pass your question on to Minister Williams, as the responsible minister, for an answer.

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:01): Fabulous, thank you. Can the minister, through you, Attorney, provide their assurance that this particularly vulnerable cohort are now being appropriately managed, as far as that is possible, within mainstream facilities and that the safety of staff is not at further risk?

Jaclyn Symes: On a point of order, President, I just seek your guidance. The substantive question was about the operation of Thomas Embling, and Dr Bach is now requesting that the Minister for Mental Health provide assurances about people within the mainstream prison system, which is not her responsibility. I recognise there is a significant crossover between Thomas Embling, which is the responsibility of the Minister for Mental Health, and the prison system, which is Minister Erdogan’s responsibility. But your question crosses over two distinct responsibilities, and they are not compatible with each other for that purpose.

Matthew BACH: I accept the Attorney’s point and in response would say that herein lies the problem – that we have this incredibly vulnerable cohort, who perhaps at the moment rightly sit under the purview of the Minister for Mental Health, who have now been moved into different facilities managed in a different way and sitting under a different minister. I accept the Attorney’s point.

The PRESIDENT: You can only ask a question to one minister, so I have to rule that particular one out.