Page 5778 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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amendment gives some direction about the sorts of things that that annual report should cover. It should cover an outline of advice that the advisory panel has provided to the government and the task force, and the responses to that advice. This is a very important way of ensuring that this Assembly continues to be engaged in the implementation of the recommendations and the work of the task force in devising the blueprint. The advice of this panel will be very important.
I commend the amendments to Ms Hunter’s motion. In doing so, I do not consider them a criticism of Ms Hunter’s original motion, but rather an enhancement which will provide increased transparency for the whole process and increased transparency as we go through the process of developing a better youth justice system in the ACT.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (11.05): We will be supporting Mrs Dunne’s amendment to my motion. As was stated, it does add some transparency. I see it as enhancing the motion. It will mean that when the youth advisory panel members are identified, those appointments will go off to the Standing Committee on Education, Training and Youth Affairs so that they can look at and be consulted on those appointments. We have many advisory panels across government. It is a regular practice for names and CVs to go off to the relevant standing committee for them to provide feedback to government.
The second one is about ensuring that in the annual reports there is documented information on the progress of the reforms, in a sense, through the activities of the task force and the advisory panel. It is not limited to, but it will outline, the advice that, for instance, the advisory panel has provided to government and the task force and the responses from the government and task force to that advice. It adds some extra work, but it is important that we have transparency in this process. Remember that this is about getting it right. We want a best practice, evidence-based blueprint that will see this community into the next decade. It is important that we have in place some way that, for instance, the Assembly can get some information on how that is going.
Therefore we will be supporting Mrs Dunne’s amendment.
Amendment agreed to.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion, as amended, be agreed to.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (11.08): I thank members for their contributions on this important issue this morning. As I said, we do need to set up a youth justice blueprint that will benefit the Canberra community and also those children and young people who get caught up in our juvenile justice system. It is about ensuring that we do the best not only by them, their families and all those involved but also by the workforce, to ensure that we are supporting our workforce with professional development and with best practice approaches and ways of doing it.
My motion this morning is to complement the work of the task force. As I said, this is not about disrespecting or not acknowledging the hard work that they have already put into this process. They do have an important role. This is about complementing that
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