Page 3064 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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people coming into contact with our justice system; strengthening support for people with disability; acting to protect children and young people at risk; helping to build a brighter future for all Canberrans; and seeing our community continue to be even more inclusive in the years ahead.
In this speech I am going to focus on the children, youth and families portfolio. As you would be aware, Madam Speaker, I am absolutely committed to ensuring that vulnerable Canberrans, including children, young people and families with complexities in their lives, are appropriately supported. I am equally committed to ensuring that staff who work with these vulnerable Canberrans are appropriately recognised and supported.
As I have spoken about previously, young people in detention are particularly vulnerable. This government continues to work to ensure that these young people are supported by a youth justice system that is rehabilitative and provides opportunities for them. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the staff who work tirelessly to support these young people: the youth workers, teachers, health workers, management and many staff in non-government organisations who engage with the young people in Bimberi every week and indeed with those who are on youth justice orders in the community.
The safety and security of young people and staff members at Bimberi are a priority for this government. In this budget we have increased our investment in the safety and security of young people and staff at Bimberi Youth Justice Centre by funding CCTV upgrades throughout the centre. The 2017-18 budget review allocated $1.189 million in funding to upgrade the security infrastructure at Bimberi. The upgrades included improvements to the CCTV system to enable continued coverage of the site, as well as greater storage capacity for visual recordings. Now that Bimberi has the capability to support greater CCTV coverage and recordings, the government will purchase and install approximately 100 additional CCTV cameras across Bimberi.
The second stage of this project will allow the Bimberi system to integrate with a whole-of-government emergency services CCTV network. In the event of an emergency, there will be the capability for emergency services outside of the centre to log in to the system and see what is occurring, to determine the most appropriate response. Of course appropriate privacy and security arrangements will be in place to ensure that that occurs only in an emergency.
This $907,000 investment over four years also responds to the first recommendation of the Human Rights Commission report, Commission initiated review of allegations regarding Bimberi Youth Justice Centre.
This budget also includes an investment of $39.757 million over four years to strengthen support for vulnerable children and young people, their families and carers, through sustainable funding for out of home care services. Under A step up for our kids: out of home care strategy 2015-20, child and youth protection services work collaboratively with the ACT Together consortium, led by Barnardos, as well as with foster and kinship carers, to embed a therapeutic trauma informed model of care for our most vulnerable children and young people.
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