A consequence of the government’s cone of silence around this latest death at the AMC is that the rumour mill is working overtime. If only half of what I’m told is true, I can understand why the Minister is keeping his mouth shut,” says columnist JON STANHOPE.

ONE month ago, on February 1, there was, as I noted in a recent column in “CityNews”, a tragic death of a detainee at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC). 

It is understood that the young man who had died and who the government is yet to identify, hanged himself in his cell.

In writing some years ago about a previous death of a detainee in the AMC, I commented that the UK Parliament had expressly legislated, in the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2011 for the extension of corporate manslaughter to deaths in detention or custody. The provisions extend to companies and importantly government bodies, who face prosecution if they are found to have caused a person’s death due to their corporate health and safety failings.

The Act expressly applies to deaths in police custody, prison, mental-health detention facilities, young offenders’ institutions and immigration detention.

A significant feature of the UK Act is that it is not reliant on an individual being found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, but allows the court to consider the wider corporate picture and to look collectively at the actions, or more appropriately failings, of the organisation or its senior management.

When the UK legislation became operational in 2011 the then head of the British Police Federation, John Coppen, was quoted as saying: “This will mean the people at the top, who actually control the buildings and the budgets, have to think about their responsibilities. In future, if someone were to hang themselves from a ligature in a cell, not only would the custody sergeant be questioned, but the authorities would look at the way the building was designed, whether there were any obvious ligature points that had not been removed, and the force could be held responsible.”

This is genuinely progressive legislation.

It is pertinent in considering the state of the law in the ACT that in June  the Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Mick Gentleman, who is also the Minister for Corrections, introduced the Work Health and Safety Amendment Bill which was designed to expand and replace the industrial manslaughter provisions of the ACT Crimes Act.

In introducing the Bill, Mr Gentleman said, with commendable feeling and righteousness, that: “Every workplace fatality is a tragedy felt deeply by families, friends, co-workers and the community. Stronger industrial manslaughter legislation will help prevent workplace tragedies and remind employers of their obligations. 

“This change will also give families of those killed in the workplace better access to justice and provide more avenues to address poor workplace safety practices and systemic non-compliance.”

The Bill was subsequently passed with the result that the penalty in the ACT for industrial manslaughter is up to 20 years’ imprisonment for individuals and a $16.5 million fine for corporations.

The new Act, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 provides that a corporation or people who conduct a business or undertaking and their officers will be liable under the amended offence if it is found they have:

• a health and safety duty as set out in the Act;
• engaged in conduct (including by omission) which results in a breach of such a duty;
• the breach of that duty causes the death of a worker or another person, or causes an injury that later results in the death of a worker; and
• been reckless or negligent in causing the death.

I acknowledge that because the ACT government is yet to release details of this recent death none of us can draw any final conclusions about the tragedy. 

However, it is undeniable, in my opinion, that as Minister for Corrections, and with overarching responsibility for the management of the AMC, Mr Gentleman and his officers owed the young man, who I understand died by hanging himself from a ligature in his cell on his first or second day of detention, a health and safety duty. If that is not the case then, surely, the new Act should be amended accordingly. 

I also profess to no deep understanding of the detail of the Work Health and Safety Act but I have assumed from reading the Minister’s passionate second-reading speech and his commitment to the wellbeing and rights of all citizens, including those at risk of injury or death in a workplace, that he would not only expect but would insist that the new law, consistent with the approach adopted in the UK, apply to him and those to whom he has delegated his responsibilities in respect of work places, such as the AMC, for which he is responsible.

For the Minister or the government to deny that that was their intention would be to reveal their hypocrisy. If it is good enough for the industrial manslaughter provisions to apply to the chief executives of private-sector companies then it is only fair and reasonable that they apply to ministers and the heads of ACT government corporations and entities. 

A predictable consequence of the cone of silence in which the government has enveloped this latest death in custody at the AMC is, alas, that the rumour mill is working overtime. If only half of what I have been told is true, I can understand why the Minister is keeping his mouth shut.

Jon Stanhope was ACT chief minister from 2001 to 2011 and the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly. Read more of his columns on citynews.com.au