On Ashley YDC …

Media release – Sarah Lovell MLC, Shadow Minister for Child Safety, 19 August 2022

Ashley evidence crucial in ensuring atrocities never occur again

The Commission of Inquiry is today continuing its hearings into the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.

The evidence is distressing for the young people who have spent time at the centre, for their families, and for those still detained there.

It is also distressing for staff and the community broadly.

The Commission of Inquiry relies on the bravery of those re-living their trauma and giving evidence. They do this so hopefully no one else ever has to again.

The Commission of Inquiry needed to happen to shine a light on our institutions – institutions where society’s most vulnerable should have been safe.

We sincerely hope the government is listening, and particularly encourage them to take immediate steps to ensure young people in Ashley are safe, and staff are supported.

Media release – Cassy O’Connor MP, Greens Leader, 23 August 2022

Liberals Fail to Reassure Tasmanians on Ashley Closure

The Rockliff Government, particularly Minister Roger Jaensch, have been dragging their collective heels on closing the Ashley Youth Detention Centre for a year.

Almost exactly a year ago, then-Premier Gutwein promised Ashley would close within three years. In Parliament today, when the Greens asked the Premier and Minister Jaensch for an update on the closure and a reassurance the new therapeutic youth justice facilities would be in place by September 2024, as promised, we just got ducking and weaving.

It seems all the progress made so far is two bureaucratic appointments to oversee the reform, while the Minister waits for an options paper. The dithering Minister Jaensch cannot, apparently, walk and chew gum at the same time.

The Commission of Inquiry has heard harrowing evidence of extreme violence towards, and sexual assault of, children at Ashley, as well as a persistent culture of abuse and cover up.

There was also evidence presented of grave bureaucratic failings and more cover up that has caused harm to children and young people.

The horrors of Ashley raised at the Commission need addressing urgently. That’s why we asked the Premier and Minister Jaensch to update Tasmanians on progress to deliver much better outcomes in youth justice through Ashley’s closure and a modern, therapeutic approach.

Every day of delay is a day the children and young people at Ashley are at risk of harm, as children and young people have been over a century of its operation.

A year in and it’s clear progress is glacial. No sites have been identified, no designs finalized nor tenders for construction and service delivery gone out.

We didn’t get a confession out of government today, but it seems highly unlikely the Liberals will meet the 2024 deadline to close the Ashley House of Horrors.

Where are Labor as Tasmania is in Crisis?

While Tasmania lurches from one human crisis to the next, the alleged State Opposition used the majority of their seven questions in Parliament asking about trivial matters.

The role of an opposition is to hold government to account on critical matters of public interest. That is not the case in Tasmania’s Parliament.

The health system is in crisis, first responders are walking off the job and the evidence of systematic child abuse is before a Commission of Inquiry. Yet not a single one of those matters was raised by the Labor Party in their seven questions.

They’ve let down the children and young people of Ashley.

We were shocked last week that the party of the unions failed to ask one question, in their 21 questions for the week, about the ongoing industrial chaos in the Tasmanian public sector.

They’ve let down essential workers.

Today, they began question time by raising nonsensical motions about nuclear submarines that were raised at Liberal State Council – while their own member conference has been cancelled.

What is going on with Labor? Holding the Rockliff Government to account on the multiple unfolding crises – including the welfare of vulnerable children in state custody and industrial chaos – has been left to the Greens and crossbench.