Page 3477 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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To be successful the youth justice system needs to be connected with the ACT community, including the Legislative Assembly, the youth and community sectors, young people and their families, victims of crime and the broad community.
As has been mentioned here, recommendation 4.3 proposes:
… children and young people and the … Standing Committee … be … engaged in the vision-setting process.
Recommendation 4.15 proposes:
The … Standing Committee … consider holding public hearings every two years on achievements towards the vision and outcomes for … people in … youth justice …
Recommendation 15.1 proposes that the Assembly standing committee annually write to ACT Policing, the DPP, the Children’s Court, Legal Aid and others about matters of interest.
I support those recommendations, which is why, as has been noted here, earlier this week I wrote to Amanda Bresnan, as the chair of that committee, noting these recommendations and welcoming members’ consideration of the recommendations and the government’s report. That is why, and I will put this on record early in the piece, I will not be supporting Mrs Dunne’s motion. But I will be supporting Ms Hunter’s amendments, because they reflect the intent and the interest that I have in engaging with the standing committee and indeed the broader community in youth justice.
The task force will get on and will provide work. They are experts in their field and I think they will support the government in working their way through this. CSD is committed to working through this review. It is an opportunity to reflect. We could put every one of those recommendations in place and in two years time we would come back after a review process on continually improving. This is not a static stand-in time or lock-in time process. It is something that we will continue.
I have counted close to 40 recommendations that are actively being worked on. That includes the reference to segregation, use of force and restraints. I think I mentioned yesterday that it will always be an issue of contention and public interest as to how those issues are managed and implemented within any detention centre, whether in the ACT or any other state or country. It is something that we have begun work on. I have asked the department to ensure that its practices are contemporary and are underpinned by human rights and best practice.
I would like to make a response to other comments. In relation to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officer, there is a position there. It has been extremely difficult to fill, so we need to go back and see what other options we can put in place to satisfy that need if we are not able to recruit to that single position. It is something that we are aware of. Perhaps there is a way through that now that we have
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