Page 4299 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 October 1991
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MR STEFANIAK (4.35): Whilst I do not agree with a lot of what a number of members have said, I nevertheless thank them for their contribution to this debate on this amendment. I can relate to and understand a number of the concerns Mr Collaery mentioned, which I accept. We both have experienced those in our time as practitioners. I understand his sentiments and Mr Jensen's sentiments in relation to children's service orders.
I want to make a couple of points in relation to that. Section 54, which is very convoluted and difficult to enforce in practice - hence my amendment - sets out enforcement provisions for the payment of fines. If a child does not pay a fine and comes back before the court, after having been arrested, invariably, there is provision in subsection (5) for that child to be placed on a community service order.
I would also remind members, as I said earlier, that they have to remember a number of things in relation to how the Children's Court operates. As Mr Collaery has quite rightly said, the courts throughout Australia tend to treat juveniles differently from adults, and for very good reasons. They are younger. As I said earlier, two-thirds of them are there first up, and do not reoffend. I think everyone can accept that. Therefore, more emphasis is placed, correctly placed, on rehabilitation than is the case in the adult courts.
It has been said in a number of places other than this, and perhaps by me on occasions, that our courts in the ACT have a reputation for being, rightly or wrongly - I think sometimes it is both - the most lenient in the country. That, indeed, applies to the Children's Court. We have a number of provisions in our Children's Services Act for penalties for children. Bonds are frequently used for first offenders, and people who might be second offenders. Community service orders - a very fine thing - are also provided for and are used by the courts. Fines are also provided for. Committal to an institution, either a general committal or a committal for a period of time, is used as a last resort, because that is locking up the child. Really, you have to do some serious acts before that happens.
I would refer members to an interesting course of conduct reported in the Canberra Times yesterday. A young man of 17 embarked on an incredible spree with some colleagues which resulted in quite a lot of damage to railway carriages and a number of stores being robbed - in one instance up to $23,000 worth of clothing. He had prior convictions, and he was incarcerated in an institution. When one looks at exactly what he did and the fact that he had prior convictions, it is little wonder that that occurred. But that is towards the more serious end of the scale. I think that is something we really have to bear in mind.
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