Page 4560 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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We know that there are 224 recommendations, some of which the government has not agreed to and some 23 that the government claims to have completed. Without a detailed scrutiny of the very large number of pages—80 or 90-odd pages—that go with this report, the opposition cannot comment fully on these, but perhaps given the importance of such a report it may have been appropriate for the minister to circulate the paper ahead of time to give people the opportunity to comment.
I note on page 10 that the minister says in relation to education:
The Minister for Education has recently announced major changes through the ACT Youth Commitment to place education at the centre of children’s and young people’s lives to ensure that young people remain supported and accounted for as they move from school to further education and training or work.
I hope that that is the case—that young people will not be accounted for, that young people will not slip through the cracks, because, as we have seen in the debate this morning in relation to the office of children and young people and in the previous debates and discussions in relation to the Vardon report, it is often the case that young people cannot physically be accounted for, let alone their contribution to the education system and what they are getting out of the education system. I know that the minister for education is very keen on sloganeering—the “earn or learn” stuff—but I think we need more than sloganeering here when we are talking about student engagement amongst those who are most vulnerable and those most at risk of engaging in the youth justice system.
I also note that there is a barb towards the end of this that requires that everyone get on board and sing Kumbaya with Minister Burch in relation to the youth justice system. To sort of threaten, as she does at the end of page 12, to say that any politicisation of the youth justice system will be bad for kids, will not stop the Canberra Liberals from continuing to be on the ball, questioning and making sure that the commitments that this minister and this government have made in relation to this inquiry will be met.
This inquiry was brought about because we were on the ball—not because Joy Burch was on the ball but because we were on the ball—and we will continue to ask the questions and to delve into this. We will be going through it, carefully monitoring and from time to time coming back to it. It will become incumbent upon the minister to report regularly on progress on these recommendations because 224 recommendations can easily get lost, just in the same way as apparently children in the care and protection system can easily get lost.
I will not be cowed by snide comments. The fact that the Canberra Liberals ask questions does not mean that we politicised the issue. There is no disagreement: we believe that the youth justice system should be a place where kids do not go. We want to create systems and structures where children do not become primed for the adult corrections system. And we have yet to see evidence from this minister that she is capable of delivering on that community aspiration.
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