Page 3955 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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and statutory bodies. Further, the committee itself is composed of people drawn from a broad cross-section of society. As a result, the recommendations of the committee come from the community rather than being imposed upon it by isolated government officials.
The report contains a broad package of measures which will work together to ensure the best possible delivery of justice to victims of crime within the ACT. The Government response which I am tabling today provides an overview of the position of the Government in relation to all of the wide-ranging recommendations of the Community Law Reform Committee. Members will note that the Government accepts a large proportion of the recommendations. Some recommendations, notably those concerning criminal injuries compensation, are being examined in a broader context by government prior to a final response.
A number of the recommendations of the committee are encompassed within the two Bills which I will introduce tomorrow - the Victims of Crime Bill 1994 and the Acts Revision (Victims of Crime) Bill 1994. A number of other recommendations have been implemented through non-legislative means. For example, victim-offender mediation now occurs within the context of a court referred scheme in the Children's Court where young offenders have admitted the offence after independent advice, and as a pre-charge scheme by the Australian Federal Police through our diversionary conferencing program - a program which has recently received considerable interest in the United Kingdom, where senior officers from the Institute of Criminology have presented an overview of our program to the London Metropolitan Police. A number of the recommendations of the committee concerning the provision of information to victims of crime have also been picked up recently by the Magistrates Court.
Madam Speaker, I believe that the implementation of these measures will make a real difference to the experience of victims of crime in the ACT criminal justice system, and I am proud that one of my first actions on coming into this Assembly was to move the first motion in the Assembly referring to victims of crime. Tomorrow the final legislative package will be produced.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
PAPERS
MR BERRY (Manager of Government Business): For the information of members, I present the following papers:
Australian Financial Institutions Commission - Report and financial statements, including the Queensland Auditor-General's report, for 1993-94.
Director of Public Prosecutions Act - Director of Public Prosecutions - Report for 1993-94.
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