Justice and Community Safety-Standing Committee-Report No. 8-The 1998/99 Annual and Financial Reports of the Department of Justice and Community Safety and Related Agencies (presented 15 February Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000)-Government response, dated April 2000.

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

Mr Speaker, I present the Government's response to Report No. 8 of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety entitled "The 1998/99 Annual and Financial Reports of the Department of justice and Community Safety and Related Agencies".

The Committee's report is the result of its consideration of ten separate annual reports covering the operations of 18 separate agencies-including two Commonwealth agencies, the Australian Federal Police (ACT Region) and The Ombudsman's Office.

Mr Speaker, the committee has made seventeen recommendations as a result of its deliberations. The primary areas of focus the Committee's report include court operations, corrective services activities including youth justice, police operations and criminal injuries.

Ten of the recommendations relate directly to either the contents or format of this and future years reports. Six of the remaining seven relate to agency operations while the remaining recommendation, no. 15, recommends that the ACT Auditor-General inquire into the Government's attempts to recover Criminal Injuries Compensation payments from the perpetrators of crimes.

Mr Speaker, the Government response that I am tabling today indicates the Government's support in full, in part or in principle to fourteen of the seventeen recommendations. The Government's response to these recommendations clearly indicates our reasons for the Government's support or where relevant, our reasons for deviating from the Committee's view. I therefore do not intend to deal with those recommendations here.