Page 2044 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017
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MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for Regulatory Services, Minister for the Arts and Community Events and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (5.45): The government will be supporting this motion, as amended by Minister Rattenbury. As Attorney-General I am committed to building a Canberra that is safe and strong and connected. Our approach to criminal justice needs to be comprehensive. Every part of the justice system has a role to play in establishing Canberra as a restorative city.
The motion is focusing on statistics. Today in my speech I would like to focus on people because engagement with people in the system helps tell us how to prevent reoffending more effectively. Understanding the experience of individuals is how we design a justice system that supports rehabilitation. Of course, recidivism statistics are important. They help us measure how well our justice system works for people. It is clear from the statistics that we need to do more. Recidivism means more victims of crime. It means our engagement with offenders did not fully succeed in helping reintegrate them into the community. But the causes of recidivism are complex and they are varied.
There can be no doubt that the factors which cause offending come into play well before a person is charged with a crime So any conversation about the performance of the Alexander Maconochie Centre needs to include the perspective of what happens before people get there. In my portfolio as Attorney-General that means focusing on the role of the courts.
One of the statistics that we know from working with the courts is that drug and alcohol abuse is strongly correlated with offending and recidivism. In 2012 the Australian Institute of Criminology reported that around half of all recorded offences were attributed to the use of alcohol or drugs by offenders. Getting the right systems in place before a person enters the AMC is absolutely critical to achieving a restorative outcome for these people.
Judges, magistrates, health professionals and correctional staff need to work together. The evidence is strong that if we provide the right support services to people with drug and alcohol problems at the right point in their contact with the judicial system, we can address these dependencies and, in turn, build more resilient people, more resilient families and a more resilient community.
That is why I am working to establish a drug and alcohol court for the ACT. A drug and alcohol court is a way of creating relationships and engagement that set people up to succeed in their rehabilitation programs. Remembering that the statistics we are talking about today start in every case with a person and that person’s relationship to the community is vital. The new drug and alcohol court will reduce recidivism by addressing drug and alcohol addiction as a root cause of offending.
The territory is well positioned to achieve strong results based on a range of advantages that we have. One is that in this jurisdiction we are fortunate to have a Chief Justice who was instrumental in establishing the New South Wales Drug Court.
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