Children and Youth

HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [10.22 am] — without notice : I move —

That this Council —

(a) recognises the health needs of men, women and children in Western Australian prisons and in Banksia Hill Detention Centre;

(b) acknowledges that people in custody are entitled to receive the same level of access and quality of health care as the general population;

(c) notes that prisoners and young people in detention are excluded from Medicare; and

159. Hon ALISON XAMON to the minister representing the Minister for Corrective Services:

I refer to the practice of transporting young people from remote areas to Perth for detention at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, which, as acknowledged in Parliament by the now Premier on 17 September 2014, is “expensive, counterproductive and does not work”.

(1) Is the government considering any strategies to reduce the number of young people being transported from rural and remote areas to Banksia Hill Detention Centre?