Page 4135 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Ms Narelle Hargreaves and Ms Tracey Whetnall, who finished their appointments as official visitors during the reporting period. Ms Hargreaves is known as Bimberi’s grandma and, as she visited Bimberi more than 300 times in her years as official visitor, it is a much-deserved title. Ms Whetnall, who tragically passed away earlier this year, was of course the ACT’s first Aboriginal official visitor. Ms Whetnall not only supported those she was working with directly but also showed great leadership in sharing culture with staff and building their capacity to create culturally safe environments.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank our new children and young people official visitors, Ms Tracey Lea Harris and Mr Chris Redmond, for their continued dedication to providing Canberra’s most vulnerable children and young people with an independent voice. Tracey and Chris will undoubtedly bring their own approach, their own focuses and their passions to the role. I look forward to working with them into the future.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Rehabilitative youth justice
Discussion of matter of public importance
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Pettersson): Madam Speaker has received letters from Ms Cheyne, Ms Cody, Mr Coe, Mrs Dunne, Mr Gupta, Mr Hanson, Mrs Kikkert, Ms Lawder, Ms Le Couteur, Ms Lee, Mr Milligan, Mr Parton, Mr Pettersson and Mr Wall proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with standing order 79, Madam Speaker has determined that the matter proposed by Mrs Kikkert be submitted to the Assembly, namely:
The importance of a rehabilitative youth justice system.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (3.03): I am delighted to bring this matter of public importance in my name before the Assembly today. I care deeply about the young people of this territory, including those who find themselves in trouble. The existence of youth justice systems separate to adult corrections acknowledges that there are important differences between adults and children when it comes to offending.
Young people are works in progress; their brains are still developing and they do not always understand what they are doing. I feel reasonably confident that every one of us in this Assembly can remember doing something when young that in retrospect was stupid, silly or even dangerous.
Of course, not everything that a young person does wrong is a crime, but some things are. When that happens and the person is apprehended, what happens next becomes extremely important. As noted in a 2016 publication by Harvard University’s Kennedy school, most youth will age out of challenging behaviours if they do not experience the trauma and adverse conditions that convert normal, transitory, risk-taking and impulsive behaviours into deeply embedded identity. This means that most youth who encounter the criminal justice system can be successfully
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