Page 2771 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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In that instance, I am seeking the views of justice stakeholders on a legislative proposal so that all aspects of the amendments can be considered. I am particularly interested in seeking the views of stakeholders about how they believe the proposed amendments would in fact operate in the context of bail and what considerations the court should have regard to when considering the granting of bail. This same approach has not been adopted by Ms Hunter when it comes to the development of her bill.
The Minister for Community Services has announced the government’s commitment to develop and implement a blueprint for youth justice that will take forward the key elements of a quality youth justice system. The blueprint will provide the direction and priority actions to ensure that change in the ACT youth justice system is properly integrated with a whole-of-government and community focus.
The government is aware that concerns have been raised in a number of jurisdictions, including the ACT, about the appropriateness and complexity of bail conditions imposed by courts and police on young people, and the appropriateness of proactive policing strategies targeting people in breach of bail conditions.
The government is committed to bail laws that properly balance the right of the community to be safe and for justice to be upheld, together with the presumption of innocence. The proposed amendments in the Greens’ bill would disturb this balance and the government just cannot support it, no matter how well intentioned it is. In this area of justice, trying hard is not enough. There needs to be a carefully considered response. We do not believe this bill meets those tests, and we cannot support it today.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.45): The Canberra Liberals will not be supporting this bill today. I think that the minister has made a thorough exposition of the problems with this bill. I think that the bill is motivated by good intent, by the concerns that there are a lot of young people who are being churned through the system, being picked up for breaches of bail—sometimes minor breaches of bail.
I think that the most important point about this is that there is a level of discretion—not that I do not believe that police can exercise this discretion—which this proposal would impose upon them that is contrary to their duties. For instance, if a police officer knows that someone is in breach of their bail, they have a duty to arrest them, take them to the watch-house et cetera. It is quite clear that if there is court-imposed bail and there is a breach, they have no alternative but to hold this person in custody until a court can deal with that court-imposed breach of bail.
The Greens’ bill wishes to address the issue of people being picked up and being taken to Bimberi and being churned through Bimberi for quite short periods of time. I think that that is laudable but I do not believe that this is the approach that is necessary. We need to address quite clearly the propensity for young people to breach their bail and reinforce that this is a highly risky activity which will eventually involve them being in remand for long periods of time.
But the Canberra Liberals take a very strong view on bail. While we believe that it is an important part of our justice system and that there is a presumption in favour of
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