Page 1182 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
communities. It does this using data-driven evidence to guide stakeholders across the justice and human services systems on the allocation of resources to programs that reduce crime and recidivism. As resources are directed to reducing the causes of crime, rather than the consequences of crime, the costs of crime are reduced and the whole community benefits.
The key point of intersection between the justice reform strategy and the justice reinvestment strategy relates to the introduction of a new sentencing option and its impact on crime reduction and recidivism. Investing in effective community-based alternatives to imprisonment should reduce rates of incarceration and recidivism and lead to identifiable savings that are then reinvested in other areas of the criminal justice or human services systems.
ACT Corrective Services is also involved in the work of the justice reinvestment strategy through membership on its advisory group. This is important, vital and timely work. The recognition of the need for new ways of doing things presents the government, and the whole community, with a chance to explore the best possible ways to reduce offending, reduce reoffending, and keep our community safe and inclusive.
We cannot simply build more and bigger jails. We need to invest in programs that support victims, rehabilitate offenders and keep our city a safe place to live and work in.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Transport—reform
Ministerial statement
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Justice, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Transport Reform) (10.22), by leave: Earlier this year the Chief Minister created a new ministerial portfolio focused on transport reform. As the Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Transport Reform, I would like to update the Assembly on the planned work for this portfolio as well as the rationale for its creation. Transport reform is needed in the ACT both to address challenges and to embrace opportunities that are on the horizon. The creation of a transport reform portfolio reflects the government’s commitment to confront these challenges, and it recognises that transport is integral to how our city grows and develops into the future. At its heart, reform means change. Some people of course do not like change, but without change there is no progress, no improvement, and no flexibility to respond to circumstances that inevitably change, whether we like it or not.
That is the practice of a good and forward-thinking government; one with an agenda to ensure the long-term prosperity, livability and sustainability of Canberra; one that helps people get around our city—whether that be people in cars, people in buses, people walking or people cycling. The issue of traffic congestion provides an example. Canberrans are generally used to a free-flowing road network with limited traffic congestion. But inevitably, as our city grows, traffic congestion is also growing at key parts of the network. Commuters find congestion frustrating.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video