Turner Judy: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turner Judy: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4037] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 Every now and then a speech is delivered in this House that should be written up by a good calligrapher and framed and I commend Katherine Rich for delivering one of those tonight. I also commend Sue Bradford because I think this is a very well-thought-through bill and United Future is very pleased to support its first reading. We will follow with interest what happens to it at the select committee and the issues raised there. 
I think the bill is well-thought-through because after pondering its possibilities and thinking through all the pros and cons I found that those were pretty well all covered. In fact the only issue I could not find and that I thought could be of interest is in the area of prison protocols relating to access to the child by other family members and the issues of supervised and non-supervised access that may need to be considered and factored in. I do not think it is a major problem and it may be that it is well covered by a regulation within the prison service. Certainly it was the only thing I could think of that the member has not covered. 
To me the issue is a lot more important than just a child’s right to be breast fed. I acknowledge the importance of that but I think the bonding and connection with the mother is also hugely important. I have a gut feeling about this issue. I feel that allowing mothers this opportunity will result in us seeing much lower recidivism rates. Children do something magical to our lives. No matter who we are as parents and what skills we have children change us for the better and I think that if these mothers are given the opportunity to have a fresh vision for their lives based on the opportunity that parenthood offers them then we will see some very very good results. 
I am keen to hear from submitters on what will happen when the mother has a sentence longer than 2 years and the child is separated from her when he or she turns 2. That does worry me a little bit because that would be more traumatic for a 2-year-old than for a newborn baby. We need to think that issue through fairly carefully. 
I am really pleased to see the sensible provisions around the unsuitability of some women who have a history of violence or who have risk behaviours that would jeopardise the child. The area of the cost of mothers’ units is a really interesting one. We need to have a whole-of-Government look at the issue of cost and ask what it will cost if we do not allow this in terms of benefits and potential recidivism. The whole cost factor needs to be looked at thoroughly—beyond just the bricks and mortar that would be required to build some special units. 
The thought of having these units in a women’s prison has huge appeal to me in terms of creating a positive environment where people are highly motivated by parenting opportunities to make a change in their lives and are given a positive environment in which to do that. I do not think the prison environment will be at all detrimentally affected by the fact that there might be some nice parenting units attached to it; in fact it could be very very good. 
I think we need to remember that victims of crime often see prison very much as being punitive—justice is being portioned out to people who have done them harm or deprived them in some way. I have read some articles by people who are concerned that this is some sort of soft option. But I guess what I am concerned about is that when we think like that at that point we have stopped thinking about the baby’s interests and the child’s interests and their need to be bonded to have contact with their mother. I think also we have forgotten that eventually people regardless of their crime will be released back into society to take up their parenting roles again and we need to be very mindful of that. I am particularly pleased that this bill includes provisions for parent education. I think that is an extremely good use of a mother’s time in prison and I commend the member for considering that option. We are very happy to support the first reading of this bill.