Page 5764 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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I do not expect this to be the last legislative initiative taken on workplace bullying in the ACT, as ongoing reforms are needed in this area. I anticipate that, in the longer term, refinements will be needed to the range of legal mechanisms governing bullying.
The bill I am introducing is an important step in this longer term process. By focusing on workplace bullying as a discrete and specialised area of work health and safety and establishing specialist inspectors and an advisory body, the bill creates a process through which the ACT can develop reforms both in practice and in legislation. I believe it will make a significant contribution to the prevention of and response to bullying and psychosocial hazards and, more broadly, to the health and productivity outcomes for the territory.
I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Dr Bourke) adjourned to the next sitting.
Youth justice
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (10.19): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) the Human Rights Commission Report into the Youth Justice System in the ACT 2011 recommendation number 4.4 that the Community Services Directorate establish a Youth Justice Advisory Panel to guide the development of a statement of purpose for the youth justice system and to monitor the ongoing translation of this purpose into practice;
(b) the Government response to the report which indicated that the Government did not agree with the recommendation but noted that the Youth Justice Implementation Task force had been set up for a period of 12 months and were developing a “Blueprint for Youth Justice in the ACT”;
(c) the Government’s response to the Human Rights Commission report outlines approximately 80 recommendations that are intended to be implemented either fully or in part by the Blueprint or the Integrated Management System;
(d) the current makeup of the task force does not fully represent the necessary skills needed to develop a complex and long lasting blueprint for vulnerable children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system; and
(e) the Human Rights Commission’s ongoing concerns that the Youth Justice Implementation Task force has been established for a finite period and the Youth Justice Advisory Panel was intended to be an ongoing specialist advisory body comprising a range of specialists as well as academics/researchers to ensure our practice reflects the current evidence base; and
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