Page 537 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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The Greens would like to see a greater focus on prevention and diversion in the ACT. While we acknowledge that work is being done at the moment, a lot of the work is in regard to the development of the blueprint for justice and the integrated management system. The Greens believe it is important that we are inclusive of as many stakeholders as possible, and these include young people, victims of crime, community sector workers, teachers and education staff, health workers, youth justice workers, families and extended kin, researchers in youth justice, child development and psychology and other experts such as criminologists who have an interest in this area.
This is why the Greens called on the government to establish a youth justice advisory panel comprised of experts in the areas of child and youth psychology, vulnerable families, trauma and abuse, and youth justice. The blueprint for justice and the integrated management system will form critical and integral frameworks which the future ACT youth justice system will work with for many years to come. The development of these frameworks cannot be kept in-house and should be used as a way of engaging others to strengthen our system for the future.
I also want to raise today that shifting a culture or developing a new, agreed way of working does not happen overnight. Reforms that are as important as this need to be based on solid evidence, not processes that can be rushed. We have been given the opportunity to get it right through the comprehensive review of the youth justice system. The Human Rights Commission’s report provides us with the opportunity to look at that incredibly important investment in the primary and secondary interventions that not only benefit young people in the ACT but will be of great benefit to the community in general.
We have an opportunity to invest in the territory’s future—an investment that I believe will bring great benefits to the whole community in the longer run. We know about investing up front and the huge economic benefits, along with social benefits, that we gain from that.
I urge the government to look at this area. I certainly will be doing work in this area myself and engaging with a range of the stakeholders. It is not just around community youth justice, it is not just around the Community Services Directorate; there are broader players in all of this area and we do need to be looking at what role they play in that early intervention and prevention framework, whether it be programs or police diversion. We need to get this right.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (4.23): The government is serious about preventing crime and reducing recidivism, and young people play a major role in the government’s efforts. Statistically the ACT has the highest proportion of 15 to 19-year-olds of any jurisdiction in the country. This is also the peak age at which property crime is committed, so this cohort is central to many of the strategies developed by the government to deal with property crime and crime more generally.
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