Page 2673 - Week 09 - Thursday, 9 August 1990
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Aid Office and the staff of that office. They are confronted with the problems of all Legal Aid officers - an overabundance of work and, no matter what efforts can be made, a problem of resources. However, the quality of service provided for young people by that Legal Aid Office can be jointly commended. Again, training for law officers, specialist training for judicial officers and youth advocacy services are areas where Government and Opposition find common ground.
In summary then, Mr Acting Speaker, the Opposition generally welcomes the Alliance Government response on legal needs and services for young people, apart from certain concerns we have at the degree to which Labor's commitments were watered down in the Alliance response. I would very much hope that despite the absence of certain important promises - in particular the bail hostel - from the Alliance's formal response, nonetheless those services will be provided.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (11.35): I would like to make a few remarks about our response to the Burdekin report, that is, about the report tabled by our Government, Beyond the Burdekin Report. First of all I want to make a brief reference to the debate that was conducted here in the last session, or even the session before, on the UN convention on the rights of the child. It is fairly obvious that although there are arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of the approach adopted in that convention and the notion of giving children rights which may cause legal problems, it is obvious that in the context of youth homelessness the notion of rights, the notion of a community responsibility to uphold and enforce rights when there are otherwise no mechanisms to do so, is an important reflection and endorsement of the approach that is adopted in that UN convention.
I have doubts in some respects that other applications of the approach in that convention are appropriate, but certainly in the context that is discussed here I have no doubt at all that this is an appropriate context and an appropriate way of pursuing the problems in this area. It is not always easy to characterise these rights. It is not always easy to frame ways in which governments or others can enforce or uphold those rights. The ACT has a Youth Advocate, for example, and has had that for a number of years. Whether that structure is most appropriate or not I think remains to be seen. I believe there are weaknesses in the present approach, and I believe that there is certainly room for us to improve the way in which the rights of children are enforced and recognised.
It is also critically important that in an area of limited resources those resources that are available to the Government are used sensibly and to the best advantage for those for whom they have been put to one side. Since the statement on the Government's response to the Burdekin report was issued by the Attorney-General a number of
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