Page 3475 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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extended family. We need to be looking at those who have had an important role in and impact on the young person’s life so that we can get that through-care and after-care right.
What I have done this morning with my amendment, which I will move in a moment, is to strip it back a bit to simplify Mrs Dunne’s motion. I do not think we are asking the standing committee to go and re-prosecute the report. What we are saying is that there are recommendations in this report that see a role for the standing committee. It is about sending it off to the standing committee to ask them to look at the recommendations and consider how they might play their part and implement those recommendations. That is one way that we can ensure, as an Assembly, that we play a role, as Mrs Dunne said, in embedding youth justice in the community. This Assembly has a role to play in that.
There are many recommendations. This is not going to happen overnight. It is going to take a lot of dedication and commitment from a lot of players. I hope that what we will see is a positive response by the minister and the department to this report and the recommendations. I would not like to see recommendations discarded because it is just too hard or because that is not the way we have done it before. We need to have quite a bit of a rethink about how we are going to run our youth justice system. I think it is also important to stop here for a moment to say it is not all bad. We know that there are very dedicated workers out at Bimberi in the community youth justice unit. Right through the system there are very dedicated workers, and that needs to be acknowledged.
We also need to acknowledge the input from young people. Some of those have found intervention in our youth justice system to have been a turning point in their lives. It is important to acknowledge that as well. This is why I said earlier we want to ensure that our workers in the system are properly supported and have the training and supports that they need. We also, of course, have the education department in there with dedicated teachers. We need to ensure that that continues and that there is good communication and connection with the management and other staff in Bimberi around the Murrumbidgee education centre.
There are some roles there that I think need to be continued. I think that the family liaison officer role within Bimberi needs to continue. I am concerned—I have heard some reports—that that role will be pulled out. I disagree with that decision. I think that that worker has been quite critical on the ground in liaising with families. Even if other things are put in place, I see that as a critical role.
The other thing I noticed in the recommendations was a recommendation around the directorate employing and putting in place an Aboriginal liaison officer. I was a little bit taken aback by that recommendation because my understanding was that an Aboriginal liaison officer position had been filled. I would like to hear further information around why the recommendation is in the report when I have been assured that that position was filled and there was somebody carrying out that position. I move the amendment circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
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