Labor calls for Corrective Services Minister David Elliott’s sacking

Besieged Corrective Services Minister David Elliott has brushed off calls for his sacking over revelations kids in custody have been kept in lengthy isolation and subjected to unwarranted strip-searches.

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Besieged NSW Corrective Services Minister David Elliott has brushed off calls for his sacking over revelations kids in custody have been kept in lengthy isolation and subjected to unwarranted strip-searches.

Mr Elliott sat on a draft of the report for 11 months, which detailed how his own department broke the law in its handling of youths in custody, which was publicly released yesterday afternoon.

Corrective Services Minister David Elliott. Picture: Nathan Edwards

New NSW Labor leader Michael Daley today called for Mr Elliott’s immediate sacking.

In response, Mr Elliott told The Sunday Telegraph he was legally powerless to publish the independent report or influence its findings and suggested NSW Labor leader Michael Daley was hypersensitive about conditions inside corrections facilities because “three of his former cabinet colleagues are still in jail”.

“I understand his personal animosity towards me because I’ve repeatedly asked him why he covered up for (former NSW Labor leader) Luke Foley over the last two years,” Mr Elliott said.

“Michael Daley and his Shadow Minister for Corrections (Guy Zangari) have had four years to provide alternate policies and we have seen nothing.

“It would have been highly inappropriate for me to release an independent report written by a statutory authority, and if Mr Daley understood the legal system in NSW he would know it’s not my report to publish.”

NSW Labor leader Michael Daley was today scathing of Mr Elliott. Picture: Jordan Shields

Mr Elliott said he had been sent a draft of the report simply so his department could fact-check it.

According to the report from independent Inspector of Custodial Services Fiona Rafter, young people have been punished with segregation and confinement despite the law clearly stating such action must only be used as a last-ditch measure “for the protection of staff and other young people”.

It also found rising rates of self-harm, assaults and incidents requiring the use of force within the state’s six youth detention centres.

“We have a situation where Mr Elliott receives a report almost a year ago and puts it in his drawer and doesn’t show it to anyone because it’s just a draft,” Mr Daley said.

“The draft was handed to the minister because the Inspector had found problems straight away and wanted him to act, but he didn’t act and his own department has been breaking the law for 11 months.

“This is a comprehensive failure by David Elliott and Premier Berejiklian should sack him now.”

Mr Elliott has been accused of misleading parliament in 2016 for telling Budget Estimates “there is no provision or practice of isolation of young people in custody”.

Kids at the Chisholm Behaviour Program, which was only shuttered four months before Mr Elliott’s denial of isolation tactics, had been kept locked up alone for 22 hours a day for weeks on end.

A draft report detailed how Mr Elliott’s department broke the law in its handling of youths in custody. Picture: Tim Hunter

Mr Daley also skewered Mr Elliott for authorities’ failure to revoke the parole of convicted rapist Anthony Sampieri, when they knew he was on ice in the weeks before he allegedly bound and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl in a Kogarah toilet last week.

“This offender has admitted in court that it was ice that led him on a sex binge, he gets out, he’s on ice, he tells his parole officers he’s on ice but they leave him on the streets and a seven-year-old girl gets attacked,” Mr Daley said.

“When we have one attacker walking around without an ankle tracker and any supervision, this could be the tip of the iceberg.

“How many more other people are walking around NSW who are intent on hurting people that aren’t being supervised because the system’s failing?”

Mr Elliott last month launched a sensational attack suggesting former NSW Labor leader Luke Foley “harassed an ABC journalist” after having “a little bit too much to drink at a party”.

The ABC’s former state political reporter, Ashleigh Raper, later released a statement detailing her account of the alleged harassment.

In the political chaos that ensued, Mr Foley gave up the leadership and will quit parliament at next year’s state election, but categorically denied the accusation he slipped his hand inside Ms Raper’s underpants and rested his hand on her buttocks at Martin Place Bar in November 2016.

Mr Daley denied he was attacking Mr Elliott as retribution for starting a chain of events that brought down a NSW Labor leader.

Three weeks after first airing the accusation under parliamentary privilege, Mr Elliott issued a second, more fulsome apology to Ms Raper, saying he was “deeply sorry for the hurt” caused by his comments in parliament.