Senate debates Motions
Noble, Mr Marlon, United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Rachel Siewert WA, Australian Greens
12:24 pm
I move:
That the Senate—
(a) notes that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recently called for Geraldton man, Mr Marlon Noble, to have the conditions of his release lifted after serving more than ten years in prison without a conviction;
(b) acknowledges that people with cognitive impairment or intellectual disability are being incarcerated for an indefinite period without conviction; and
(c) calls on the Western Australian Government to commit to implementing the CRPD recommendation to lift the conditions on Mr Marlon Noble's release.
James McGrath Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
I seek leave to make a short statement.
James McGrath Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
As the matters concerning the individual are state based offences and concern conditions imposed by the WA Mentally Impaired Accused Review Board, this is entirely a matter for the Western Australian government.
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party
I seek leave to make a short statement.
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party
Labor will not be supporting this motion. We do not think it is appropriate to support it when we were not given enough prior notice to fully look into the case in question and before a Senate inquiry on the exact topic has reported. We do not want to pre-empt the report of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee's inquiry into the indefinite detention of people with cognitive and psychiatric impairment in Australia.
Rachel Siewert WA, Australian Greens
I seek leave to make an extremely short statement.
Rachel Siewert WA, Australian Greens
I won't take even that. My point is that the Labor Party asked me to defer this so they could consider it. I take offence at the suggestion that I have not given them enough time, when I did what they asked and deferred the motion. I want to put that on record.
Question negatived.