CORRECTIONAL SERVICES AWARDS

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:34): Prior to my resignation as Minister for Correctional Services I had the opportunity to present the now annual Department for Correctional Services awards on 9 February this year. As then minister I was able to place on the record of this parliament the recipients of individual awards, and today I would like to recognise the work of those who received the team excellence awards on the day. The Team Excellence Awards recognise teams or work units for their contributions to the achievement of the department's goals in leadership and management, innovation and productivity, partnerships and service, systems or project development, and facilitating continuous improvement through corporate and stakeholder focus. The team recipients were:

the Adelaide Remand Centre education group. This group has worked tirelessly and consistently in producing outstanding results in offender education. The team has far exceeded the expectations of all performance targets, and its innovative approach, hard work and dedication to offender education has enabled the prisoners to achieve exceptional results. The award recognised the team for its outstanding commitment, selfless and exceptional service, and standards in offender education;

the Adelaide Women's Prison trainee correctional officer performance review and assessment teams. These teams have been highly successful and committed to the performance review and assessment of trainee correctional officers. The team-based approach is growing to be a best practice model for other institutions, providing holistic input from a broad range of members by ensuring that trainee correctional officers are given every opportunity to skill themselves;

the Berri Community Correctional Centre. The team at this centre has developed a high standard of professional expertise and forged strong and enduring relationships and partnerships with stakeholders in the justice and community service sectors in the Riverland and Southern Country Region of community corrections. The award recognises the team's high standard of work, leadership, initiative and dedication in ensuring the success of its projects and initiatives;

the Leadership Management and Culture Team, Organisational Development Branch. This team, within the Organisational Development Branch, has worked tirelessly over the past two years in developing and delivering a highly professional and innovative development and learning program for all staff who are, or who aspire to be, operational supervisors in the prisons. The team must be commended for its outstanding efforts in supporting the department's goals through developing such a program to enhance, develop and extend the leadership and management knowledge and capabilities of supervisors in our correctional services department who will be managers in the future;

MOWCamp. The MOWCamp unit at the Port Augusta prison has been in operation for 12 years and undertakes several projects a year in various national parks for the Department for Environment and Heritage. The ongoing working relationship has been cemented into a memorandum of understanding between the two departments. The work undertaken by prisoners rotating through various camps ranges from environmental improvements, maintenance work to restore assets to original working order, construction of walking trails, and restoration of heritage buildings. It has brought significant benefits for both departments, as well as the prisoners and the community. This has been achieved by the highly dedicated team who are all extremely committed to this successful program, which is very much appreciated and held in high regard by the communities connected to the national park locations; and

Port Adelaide Community Correctional Centre. The team at this centre has been extremely committed and dedicated in the implementation of the department's assessment tool, the Offender Risk Needs Inventory—Revised (known as ORNI-R in community corrections). The staff has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision by embracing change and role modelling to allow for a smooth transition in the introduction of ORNI-R. This best practice assessment tool is accepted as an essential part of case management of offenders in the community.

I thought it important to include on the public record the recognition of all staff in the Department for Correctional Services who are recognised by their outstanding professionalism and conduct. I know I am joined by the now minister in the other place, the Hon Tom Koutsantonis MP, in congratulating all those staff members who were recognised on the day, both individuals and team members. I thought it important to also recognise these Team Excellence Awards in addition to the individual awards already placed on the record. All recipients, whether individuals or members of teams, have in common their outstanding commitment.

Time expired.