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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 82 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

rights under the previous legislation. If the court finds that the legislation is valid, then the government will put in place appropriate arrangements to deal fairly with those victims affected by the retrospective legislation.

In respect of the broader scheme, the legislation requires an independent review to be conducted and completed by March 2002. The review will examine the operation of the victims of crime financial assistance scheme and the operation of the victims services scheme. Arrangements are being made to appoint an independent person to undertake that review. The government will table the final report of that review in the Assembly and will use it as a basis for community consultation before deciding on future arrangements for victims of crime.

The government considers that a thorough review of the current diversionary conferencing arrangements in the ACT is well and truly due. Diversionary conferencing has been in place, essentially unchanged, since mid-1994. We now have the benefit of some of the research undertaken as part of the reintegrative shaming experiment conducted by ANU academics to help us assess how to improve and build on the current scheme. In addition, we need to explore other innovative schemes with the potential to divert young people from criminal behaviour. We will be putting options forward for consideration by the community in the first half of 2002.

I turn to the health system, a portfolio responsibility that presents a range of significant challenges. In my view, reforms in the health sector are critical and, at this early stage, warrant my personal attention. The Labor Party made a number of commitments before the election and we have already started to implement them. These commitments will focus our efforts in the short term on a number of areas.

Those areas include addressing funding issues for the Canberra Hospital; acknowledging the role of nurses as an indispensable and invaluable part of the health system and ensuring appropriate recognition of and support for nurses; establishing a health summit which will provide an agreed understanding of our action plan for health; ensuring services better meet the needs of the disadvantaged in our community, particularly focusing on services for people with disabilities and mental health issues, and we have significant reforms to implement in these areas; and a package of support around carers and aged citizens, including respite, psychogeriatric services, in-home support and convalescence.

Also, there will be a clearer focus on the needs of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and multicultural community-we need to work together more effectively and support our Aboriginal medical health services and ensure mainstream services are culturally sensitive-and a comprehensive plan for reducing alcohol and other drug-related harm in our community.

A key priority will be the need for healing in the wake of the Gallop disability inquiry. We must acknowledge the need for all organisations involved in providing services to people with disabilities to work in partnership and heal relationships within the sector. Together we can focus on achieving better outcomes for our disadvantaged.

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