Page 3673 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 September 2018
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We still have a very long way to go in this territory when it comes to getting youth justice right. But we are a small jurisdiction and I am confident that, with the right leadership and policies in place, we would be ideally placed to meet the needs of children and young people who find themselves in trouble. This legislation is certainly a small step in the right direction, and I therefore commend it to the Assembly.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Disability, Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety, Minister for Government Services and Procurement, Minister for Urban Renewal) (12.08): I also rise to speak on the Crimes (Restorative Justice) Amendment Bill 2018, particularly as it relates to young offenders and access to restorative justice for victims of young offenders.
Before going to my prepared remarks, however, I would seek to remind Mrs Kikkert that the headline indicators report for Bimberi Youth Justice Centre that I committed to establishing last year as part of my ongoing commitment to transparency in the youth justice system was, in fact, tabled in this place on 22 March, along with the mid-term progress report on the blueprint for youth justice in the ACT 2012-22, which I will speak more about in a moment.
The ACT’s restorative justice scheme provides the opportunity for eligible and suitable victims, offenders and their supporters to communicate either face to face or by indirect means with the help of a trained restorative justice convenor. The purpose of this communication is to address the harms caused by an offence by discussing what happened, who has been impacted and in what ways, as well as what the responsible person can do to help put things right for victims of crime.
The amendments set out in this bill, as others have mentioned, will allow more victims of crime to access restorative justice, if and when they need or want it, and they have been informed by feedback from referring entities. ACT Policing, the courts, child and youth protection services, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Corrective Services and the Victims of Crime Commissioner all provided input into these reforms.
As the legislation currently stands, for an offence to be referred to the restorative justice unit, they must be satisfied that the offender accepts responsibility for the offence. The bill before us seeks to amend this to allow young offenders who have been charged with a less serious offence to be referred to the restorative justice process when they do not deny responsibility for the commission of an offence.
As Mr Rattenbury said in his presentation speech, and as others have mentioned, this is a subtle but significant change. This amendment recognises that there may be a range of reasons that a person may not accept responsibility for an offence at the time of apprehension, including distrust of law enforcement.
It should be understood, however, that young offenders who access restorative justice under this modified threshold will be subject to the same suitability assessments as other offenders once the referral has been made. This means the young person will
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