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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (13 October) . . Page.. 3098 ..

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry!

MR HUMPHRIES: If you encourage anyone, Mr Berry, it would be - - -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would ask the Minister to direct his remarks through the chair.

MR HUMPHRIES: I will direct my remarks through the chair, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. It is a fit and proper thing that the Assembly is now clearing up the mess that was made some time ago in this place.

One of the problems with the arrangement put in place by the Assembly was that the Children's Court Magistrate or Deputy Children's Court Magistrate might from time to time be unavailable or unable to hear a particular matter for a variety of reasons - for example, personal leave, sickness, absence for some reason, disqualification because of a conflict of interest or the unavailability of a designated magistrate. With only two people capable of hearing such matters, it obviously placed a very heavy burden on those two people to cover all the time that the ACT court might have to hear matters, sometimes urgent applications, from people wishing to come before it. That gave rise to significant problems in some areas - for example, remand matters, adjournments and bail for child offenders. It is very refreshing and very encouraging to see Mr Rugendyke's Bill come forward to address these concerns.

Mr Rugendyke's Bill will allow for a declaration of a magistrate to constitute the Children's Court for a period of not less than two years. This will still achieve the degree of specialisation in children's matters that I think the Assembly is seeking. It is regarded by some stakeholders as being desirable, but it will not be for such a long period of time that magistrates working in that field may feel themselves to be stale in respect of other work that magistrates do, or that might lead to some situation where magistrates themselves might be regarded as being overly close to their work.

The Bill will permit the Chief Magistrate to assign a magistrate to act as the Children's Court Magistrate if the Children's Court Magistrate is absent or otherwise unavailable. That is a very important reform to the structure of the Act. The inflexibility of the present arrangements are a real concern, and I am very pleased that the Bill which Mr Rugendyke has put forward provides for that level of flexibility. I think we should carefully consider whether legislation which is put through the Assembly at such speed in the future ought to be reconsidered or ought not be put through in such a way.

A point made at the time the original Bill was put forward was that it was done without the Government having had time to respond to a committee report which made various arguments with respect to the Bill. I hope we are able to ensure that in future we more carefully consider the impact of our legislation on the important agencies of the Territory, particularly the Children's Court. I hope this Bill will end the saga in relation to the Children's Court and allow it to focus on serving its clients - that is, the ACT community, particularly those people who are minors.

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