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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3894 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

The amendment that is being suggested in this part of the Children's Services Bill should be supported, for the reason that it sets out quite clearly what is to happen in the future in relation to the Official Visitor's annual report. We will not have the situation that has arisen in the past whereby the annual report has sat around for quite a long time and has not been presented to the Assembly in a timely way, thus stopping discussion of some of the issues contained within the report.

I particularly remember this being the case in relation to the Official Visitor's report because that was one of the first issues I dealt with when I came to this place in 1996. There was a long outstanding annual report that had not been presented and, in fact, discussed by members of the Assembly. That meant the issues raised in this report did not have the opportunity of being publicly aired. Some of the issues are slow to be fixed up and remedied if this happens. The amendment puts the annual report by the Official Visitor under the same conditions as similar annual reports within the ACT Public Service.

I have some problems with the timing of these amendments. A full-scale and very long review of the Children's Services Act is already taking place. The Minister should be commended for starting this process and allowing sufficient time for full consideration of it. Hopefully, many members of the community, in whatever capacity, will have the opportunity to comment on the Children's Services Act and its impact on services for children. But why do we need to put in amendments now, when a concurrent process is going on? You have to question the timing of these amendments at this stage of the life of the Assembly, occurring at the same time as a review is going on.

The amendments relating to the transfer of juveniles interstate in some respects do not change what is possible already. Currently, within the Children's Services Act there is the opportunity for children to be transferred interstate. It goes through a court process. I am sure the Minister can instance times when it has worked successfully. A process is gone through. It is a process whereby the situation in relation to a juvenile is presented to the court and a decision is made about whether the juvenile is transferred to an interstate institution. Considering the time that we are looking at for the changes to the Children's Services Act, why make these changes at this point when there is already a process through the court system?

One of the impacts of these changes is that there will be a delegation of responsibility to the Director of Family Services for these transfers. There is quite a shift from having it through the court system to having it done within the bureaucracy. I note that there are to be various checks after the event, in reviewing and monitoring the impact of these transfers; but that will be done after the director has made a decision. It is not an action that is being taken by the Minister doing it or going back to the court; it is being done within the bureaucracy itself.

I have some concerns with that, considering the seriousness of the situation. We are talking about juveniles who have committed crimes within the ACT and who, having gone through the court system, were given custodial sentences that were to be served within Quamby. Surely, the ACT community has a responsibility for the care and rehabilitation of those children within the confines of Quamby or another juvenile institution.

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