Cleveland Dodd inquest: Ex DG blasts ‘obstructive to change’ accusation against him ‘absolute rubbish’

The former boss of the Department of Justice has labelled an accusation he was part of a group pushing back against positive change at Banksia Hill Detention Centre as “absolute rubbish”. Adam Tomison was recalled to answer follow-up questions at Cleveland Dodd’s inquest on Thursday and responded emphatically to testimony by Andrew Beck given earlier this month. Mr Beck said there had been a small but influential core group of Banksia Hill Detention Centre staff who had a punitive, adult corrections-style mindset and resisted improving the State’s then sole facility for young offenders. Mr Beck was deputy commissioner for women and young people for two years until June 2022, the month before a second, highly contentious youth detention site at Casuarina Prison’s Unit 18 was created - and where Cleveland fatally self-harmed in October. He told the WA Coroner’s Court that superintendent Michael Heslington undermined efforts to improve Banksia Hill, tearfully testifying he had seen him belittling at least two detainees. Mr Beck said he urged his superiors to remove Mr Heslington and Dr Tomison agreed. But the push was scuppered after union intervention, he said, adding the then-director general viewed Mr Heslington as “the best thing since sliced bread”. “That’s absolute rubbish,” Dr Tomison told the court, saying he was not obstructive to positive change. Dr Tomison said the union had sent a letter of support for Mr Heslington but he ultimately decided “maybe it’s time for a change” after Mr Heslington made “an intemperate remark”. Mr Heslington has not been called to give evidence at the inquest and in November 2021, swapped roles with Melaleuca Women’s Prison superintendent Wade Reid. Dr Tomison conceded that Banksia Hill was the only part of WA’s custodial estate that was in crisis in early 2022 and that he “should have made the decision to try for a second site earlier”. It opened woefully short of staff, services and facilities, and adult prison officers were used to “back up” youth custodial officers with security. The department was struggling to get enough YCOs, who were often not properly trained, and Dr Tomison admitted that was a problem of its own making. “That was a failing and we’d been playing catch-up,” he told the court. Dr Tomison said he recommended Unit 18 to house Banksia Hill’s most disruptive detainees to then corrective services minister Bill Johnston and he then presented it to Cabinet without a written proposal from the department, equipped with nothing but some speaking notes. A media statement announced Unit 18 the following day and it wasn’t until a week later that the department sent him a briefing note, which was crammed with aspirations about what it would offer. Dr Tomison said he took responsibility for allowing such inaccurate messaging about Unit 18, prepared by his underlings, insisting that they “genuinely believed” it would be good. He also revealed that Mr Johnston had been provided with a list of alternative sites including the Disability Justice Centre and Kath French Centre even though they had been considered multiple times previously but considered not suitable. Such options were too small, not secure enough and seemingly in the case of the white elephant Bullsbrook quarantine facility, “too far”. One phone call was made about its suitability, Dr Tomison said. “The analysis didn’t take too long to produce,” he said.