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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3124 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

The Government has taken, and is continuing to take, many positive steps to develop ways and means of promoting the concept of a non-violent culture within our school communities. The Government recognises the value of pre-service training and in-service teacher professional development which empowers staff and provides for the development of competence in the implementation of student management programs. New recruits to the teaching service in the Territory are required to address student management as one of the selection criteria for employment.

The consolidation in 1995 of the Children's, Youth and Family Services Bureau with the Department of Education and Training was a notable step forward. It created a workable structure and an important new opportunity for providing coordinated services to students, families and schools to improve educational outcomes for students with emotional or behavioural difficulties. Support for families will continue to be a Government priority, with emphasis given to the further development of family counselling and other family support services within the Territory. Following on from this administrative consolidation of children's services, a significant initiative, "Youth Connection: District Student/Youth Coordinating Service", provides an early interventionist approach for students with a range of complex needs. The emphasis is on prevention of truancy, school refusal and supporting students at risk with effective case management through one contact point. Fortnightly meetings of education, family services and health personnel discuss referrals and develop a case management approach leading to more positive outcomes for young people potentially at risk.

For students, peer mediation training - another very useful strategy which is supported by this Government - is another means of preventing violent solutions to problems. Peer mediation was strongly supported by students at forums held in April of this year as an early intervention strategy in the prevention of violence. Mr Speaker, 22 teachers from a number of government schools have been trained in this program. As I said at the beginning of my comments today, I believe that our Government's response to the Social Policy Committee's report on the prevention of violence in schools shows that we are on the right track in this very important area of concern for our young people, students and society as a whole. If there are points at which our Government's approach varies from that of the committee, those points are certainly not fundamental to the seriousness of the problem or the consensus that prevention is the only effective solution to this very complex problem. I commend the Government's response.

MR MOORE (11.18): Mr Speaker, as the preface to this report states, it is indeed a very complex set of issues. I recall the Committee on Violence in Australia reporting in 1992, I think, if my recollection serves me correctly. That committee, headed by Professor Duncan Chappell, also wrestled with a whole range of the same sorts of issues in principle and there were, of course, dissenting reports and dissenting views within that committee.

The particular strength of this report by the Social Policy Committee is that it is a unanimous report. I think that generally the Government's response to the report on preventing violence in schools has picked up the spirit of this report, although there are a number of issues that I know that Ms Tucker has referred to where there is extra room to move. Because of the complexity of these sorts of issues, I think it is highly unlikely that we will get overall agreement.

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