Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:20): (261) I have got another question for the Minister for Youth Justice. Minister, as you say, your department is currently relocating detainees from Malmsbury to the new Cherry Creek detention centre. The first 10 are extremely high-risk young people. Why have they been moved to lower level security settings at Cherry Creek, resulting in a staff member being injured at work?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:20): I thank Dr Bach for his question in relation to our new flagship Cherry Creek facility. Again, some of your assertions, Dr Bach, I hope you did not receive from the shadow minister, because some of his assertions I would not accept on face value. I will repeat that. The model at Cherry Creek, you have asserted, is less secure. I think that was the assertion that you have made or something along those lines. I have been very clear in this chamber many times that the initial cohort at Cherry Creek is the 15- to 18-year-old boys, which is a more complex cohort. But the Cherry Creek model is a different model; it is about giving young people the best chance to turn their lives around. Let me be clear: it is about giving them the best chance to turn their lives around. If they do not take that opportunity, that is up to them. But it is still a high-security facility. It has the latest technology in place, and the staff training model is higher than it has been before.
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:21): I do thank the minister. Minister, there was an agreement for 30 per cent of staff to be experienced and 70 per cent newly trained at Cherry Creek. At this point in time I am advised the experienced level is as low as 5 per cent, clearly putting staff at risk, so I ask: how many more convicted murderers, or those on remand for allegedly committing murder, will be relocated to Cherry Creek while there are insufficient experienced staff?
Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (12:21): I thank Dr Bach for his supplementary question. In relation to the level of offending, I have already addressed that in my substantive. I have said it is a high-risk cohort with children with complex behavioural issues, and that is why they are at this new facility, where we are giving them a chance to turn their lives around. It would be very inappropriate to comment considering the small numbers of young people – many of them are alleged, let us be clear on that as well – or to go into the specifics of who is there, because these are very detailed operational matters that I will leave to the experts instead of the conspiracy theorists.