Page 3472 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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basically saying, “We are going to respond in October and then we will work from there.”
I think that these are things which are important. The government has a responsibility to do this. While the government are acting on longer term issues they should be also acting urgently on those issues which the Human Rights Commission has highlighted, and I think it is reprehensible of the minister that she could not stand up in question time yesterday and say, “That is underway; I expect to introduce the appropriate legislation,” and give us a date.
The minister has had this report for as long as the members here have. She has a large number of resources at her disposal. She says that she is interested in bringing this matter to resolution. If she cannot respond quickly to something which has been highlighted as needing urgent action, we have serious concerns. Because I continue to have serious concerns about this process and because this is such an important issue which this Assembly must maintain ownership of, I think that this is the only way forward.
I have had a conversation with Ms Hunter and she has an amendment which, whilst taking out all the words, has a simpler and an interim approach. I know that she will speak to that, but we are generally in support of her amendment. That means that at the end of the day the Assembly will have taken control and ownership of this report, and I think that this will be a good way forward. I commend the reference to the Assembly and look forward to a positive vote.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (10.27): I am pleased to see that Mrs Dunne has brought this motion to the Assembly today. It was quite clear from the report that there were a number of recommendations that refer to the standing committee here in the Assembly that looks after young people and that it had a role to play in ensuring that there was some sort of monitoring and oversight of where this report is going next. The report is comprehensive. I made quite a long speech the other day around the report. I congratulate all of those who were involved in putting it together. I cannot go through all of the names, but I thank the team.
Extensive consultation was conducted in a number of ways. There were surveys, face-to-face interviews and focus groups, and arrangements were made so that staff could also have input in an anonymous way. A whole range of different consultation measures were put in place. I congratulate the commission on the range of different ways that people could participate. I think it was a very good practice that other inquiries could follow.
What we have here is a comprehensive report that has not only looked at all aspects of Bimberi but has also touched on the broader youth justice system, as the motion in the Assembly requested it to do. Of course, a lot of the focus has fallen on the closed community, the youth justice centre, because it is important that we ensure that there are proper policies and procedures in place. As I said, it is a closed community and that is why it needs proper external monitoring. There need to be people ensuring that any policies and procedures are properly followed. We found from this inquiry that there were a number that were not followed. There were some gaps and there were areas where things just needed to change.
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