Mark Richardson, a police officer, is the Independents for Canberra’s lead candidate for Ginninderra. He states that his passion is community safety, and he believes his rôles with the AFP have provided crucial skills and experience to enable him to serve his electorate as a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly. He is concerned by the noticeable increase in people experiencing mental health issues, homelessness, and the increase in domestic violence in our society. 

The ACT Greens have been in control of the Corrections and Justice Health portfolio since 2012 and many aspects of climate and environment related portfolios since 2016. In terms of the criminal justice system, as at 2024, the ACT has one of the worst performing prisons in Australia when it comes to rehabilitation outcomes for inmates. 80 per cent of current inmates have experienced prior imprisonment, which is the highest proportion in the country. This despite the ACT Government spending more per prisoner than any other jurisdiction. According to the Institute of Public Affairs, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has the highest operating costs at $681 per prisoner per day ($249,000 per year). Our net operating costs since 2014-15 have grown by 77 per cent, again the highest in the country.

In 2022, the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services conducted a report into the health of AMC (2022 ICS Report), identifying key issues including the lack of education and rehabilitation programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island detainees. In the report, Deadly Connections noted “support to prepare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees for release and transition back into the community was consistently referred to as ‘very poor’, had ‘no planning’ and comprised ‘absolutely nothing’.”

The average daily number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) in ACT prisons has increased by 28 per cent in the past three years, according to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.

There are significant issues at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) in relation to detainees on remand being housed with sentenced prisoners – in contravention of the Human Rights Act. The Auditor-General has reported on the failures of healthcare at AMC, in particular mental health.

The 2022 ICS Report also found the Transitional Release Centre (TRC) at AMC was consistently operating well below capacity and noted the “Transitional Release Centre has been empty or close to empty for the majority of the last three years, only officially reopening on 13 April 2022 to two residents (both of whom were to work in AMC stores and not in the community). As of June 2022, the highest occupancy of the TRC has been five men, or 25 per cent of intended capacity.”

The promised Reintegration Centre was due to be completed in 2021 but construction has never commenced. The Attorney-General stated “changing circumstances and shifting accommodation priorities at the Alexander Maconochie Centre has meant that the government paused work on the reintegration centre.”

There have also been considerable issues with the Crisis Support Unit in AMC, with the 2022 ICS Report finding “the physical environment of CSU is more likely to escalate and trigger challenging behaviour rather than provide a sensory environment conducive to recovery and de-escalation of challenging behaviours.”

In relation to criminal offending, the ACT has the second-highest rate of motor vehicle theft, breach of bail statistics continues to rise year on year, and our police officers and other support agencies are dealing with ever increasing numbers of family and domestic violence, and mental health incidents. In 2022-23, ACT Policing attended 4,166 mental health related incidents and 3,308 family violence incidents. We also have the highest reoffending rate in Australia, which grew again in the last year. Despite the Attorney-General’s claims to the contrary, our reoffending rate has gone up since the introduction of his Reducing Recidivism by 25% by 2025 program, according to the Productivity Commission.

The Greens’ record on the environment is equally poor. In June this year, the Environment Minister, Greens Deputy Leader Rebecca Vassarotti, was quoted in relation to the 2023 Environment report “While I presented the government response, this is only as far as the Labor majority government was prepared to go. And we have to recognise that the response as it stands won’t substantially improve our environmental protection in the ACT.”

The ACT State of the Environment Report made a number of recommendations including halting Canberra’s urban sprawl, developing climate change adaptation plans for key sectors, greater independence for the Conservator of Flora and Fauna, and setting targets for indirect greenhouse gas emissions for all government operations.

I recently attended an event at the ANU hosted by Senator David Pocock about the need to protect the western edge of the ACT from further development. During the presentation, I was made aware of some very concerning statistics.

In 2024, the World Wildlife Fund released its Threatened Species Scorecard which revealed the ACT experienced the largest decrease over the last two years in both the recovery plan and protection indicators of any jurisdiction in Australia. Concerningly, the ACT does not have any Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA), which are defined by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) as “areas of land and sea Country managed by First Nations groups in accordance with Traditional Owners’ objectives.”

As at 30 June 2024, there are 85 dedicated IPAs, whose primary focus is improving biodiversity conservation outcomes, across Australia. The ACT has zero IPAs and no areas listed as IPA consultation projects. $231.5 million of Commonwealth funding is being invested in the IPA Program from July 2023 to June 2028.

My question is: What work has the ACT’s Greens-Labor coalition government done to establish an IPA in the ACT? Has any been done? And who will take responsibility for the fact that we aren’t receiving any of that $231.5 million in federal funding to support biodiversity conservation in Canberra?

During this 2024 election campaign, I have repeatedly heard the Greens MLAs refer to ACT Labor as “the government” in an attempt, no doubt, to create space between themselves and responsibility. The reality is that the ACT Greens have been ineffective whilst in government. Labor has put urban sprawl ahead of environmental protection and the Greens have openly acknowledged their powerlessness to stop it.

As a candidate for Independents for Canberra, I have made my position very clear. I will maintain my integrity and independence. If elected, I will sit on the crossbench holding the government to account, not form a coalition of convenience that lets down those who voted for me.

Views expressed in this opinion piece are not necessarily those of this publication.