Page 5773 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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Justice Implementation Taskforce are to develop the “Blueprint for Youth Justice in the ACT” and to monitor the implementation of the Blueprint over a period of 12 months. The Government stated the Blueprint will include the statement of purpose for the youth justice system and that the Taskforce comprises representatives from the Government and the community sectors with expertise in youth and youth justice. The Government noted that the Taskforce has the capacity to engage other expertise as required and, therefore, a separate Youth Justice Advisory Panel is not warranted;
(c) the Human Rights Commission provided a response on 5 December 2011 to the ACT Government’s response to The ACT Youth Justice System 2011: A Report to the ACT Legislative Assembly by the ACT Human Rights Commission;
(d) the role of the Taskforce in developing the Blueprint for youth justice can be enhanced by engaging with experts in juvenile justice to ensure the Blueprint delivers outcomes for vulnerable children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system in the long-term; and”.
(2) Omit paragraph (2), substitute:
“(2) respond to the Human Rights Commission’s response to the ACT Government’s response to The ACT Youth Justice System 2011: A Report to the ACT Legislative Assembly by the ACT Human Rights Commission addressing the Commission’s concerns about the establishment of a Youth Justice Advisory Panel.”.
Amendment No 1 just seeks to clarify the response in reference to the recommendation. The amendment ensures that the motion reflects the actual government response to the recommendation, which provides further context where the task force has actually envisioned that the ability to access expert advice is crucial to the development of the blueprint.
Also, amendment No 1 seeks to make comment around the membership of the task force, because I do not believe that we have responded in a half-baked way at all. The Commissioner for Children and Young People has had oversight since Bimberi has opened and he has not raised this as a priority with me. So I really do urge the Assembly to allow the government to get on with the system that has been put in place.
In amendment No 2 I am seeking to delete all of Ms Hunter’s section 2 and to make the statement that we will respond to the Human Rights Commission’s response to the government’s response to the report just so we can be really clear on our interpretation and have a clear understanding with the commission.
Finally, I am somewhat disappointed that throughout all the responses and the commission’s report there has not been a clear articulation of his view or his opinion of the position of youth justice and how he feels our system is sound. Whilst we all acknowledge that there are areas for improvement, I would like this Assembly to really just accept that youth justice, whilst there are areas for improvement, is in a
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