Logie Jan: Corrections Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Corrections Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 26 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8201. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 I follow on from that member Louisa Wall in also providing my first speech on this bill the Corrections Amendment Bill tonight. As it is the third reading it does seem rather late but there are several core points of principle that explain the Greens’ opposition to this bill that I would like to outline. Firstly and it is an issue that is close to my heart we are opposing this on the basis that we see it as another erosion of human rights. When somebody has committed a crime and is sentenced to a punishment we have a system that actually acknowledges that the incarceration is the extent of that punishment. There should not be any further erosion of their human rights just because they are in prison. This bill we believe will erode those rights in terms of extending the strip-search potentially limiting access to health care and also requiring the person to pay more money out of their pocket towards costs that have not necessarily been defined. 
We are very very pleased that the Government has listened and engaged in the select committee process in respect of the submissions from the Labour Party and the Green Party in regards to extending strip-searches without managerial approval. That now has conditions on it and the ability to put prisoners in maximum security has also been taken out. That is a win from our perspective. 
However the bill and the changes have not gone far enough sadly. I do not think we should need to explain in this House why human rights are important. But I just get the sense and I have been very surprised by it in my involvement in this political process that there does seem to be a need to explain the importance of human rights. The Human Rights Commission and many other submitters noted that respect for human dignity is a fundamental and universal human rights obligation. It is not something we can put conditions on. That is just something in itself. When we developed these human rights our thinking around that post World War II was that there were really clear and obvious reasons for holding human rights dear and I worry that we are losing that sense of consciousness. 
Beyond that in itself being important there are also very clear reasons for supporting the human rights of prisoners because supporting them is clearly linked to people’s reintegration and rehabilitation. It reduces conflict in prisons and increases the chances of rehabilitation and ultimately that is what gives us a safer society. It is a very sad thing to see legislation continually coming before this House that bit by bit erodes the human rights of prisoners. Ultimately we are all going to pay by having a less safe society. 
I want to just speak a little bit more in terms of the strip-searches. I have heard other colleagues in the House raise the issue that we have clear evidence that those people who are in our prisons although they have committed crimes are actually some of our most vulnerable people particularly the women; the majority of them have experienced sexual abuse and violence in their lives. To increase strip-searches of them and to make that mandatory if they are needing to be put into detention to protect them seems unusually cruel to me particularly when the evidence shows that it will do nothing to protect them or even act as a safeguard against the entry of contraband into the prisons. So here we are actively invading people’s privacy and bodily integrity for an ideological gain which is the only thing I can see in it. That to me is a tragic thing I have to say. Finally another reason that we are opposing this bill is that it has been—