Page 5766 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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alcohol court. I was hopeful that, although some of these initiatives seemed rushed, these were genuine efforts to make reform and change to the youth justice system.
The ACT government provided the following advice in their response to the 224 recommendations of the youth justice review: 105 recommendations are agreed, of which 57 are commenced and 22 are completed; 84 recommendations are agreed in principle, of which 36 are commenced and one is completed; 29 are noted, of which eight commenced; and six are not agreed.
At first glance this looked like a positive sign that the minister, the Community Services Directorate and the community were going to be able to work together to make necessary changes. However, I was quite underwhelmed by the response when I was able to analyse the response the government provided.
My analysis of the government response uncovered contradictions, confusion and some misinterpretation. I began to see a pattern emerging of recommendations being refused with little explanation, recommendations that were agreed to that were, in fact, subject to budgetary considerations, and a number of recommendations that were stated to be either completed or commenced without any clear indication of where or how that was happening. I also began to understand that the blueprint and the integrated management system project were to be responsible for approximately 80 of the recommendations.
The blueprint for youth justice is a vital piece of work that will take years to fully implement, require considerable resources and seek to positively impact on some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our community. Many of these children, young people and their families may experience mental health issues, alcohol and other drug use and have multiple complex concerns. They may have experienced trauma or abuse, be at risk of disengaging from education and have some experience with care and protection. Moreover, many of these families will require community support to address issues of generational social inequality and disadvantage.
The life trajectories for those children and young people who have tertiary or high level contact with the justice system is appalling. Longitudinal studies by the Institute of Criminology paint a bleak picture of homelessness, poor mental and physical health outcomes, high rates of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, increased rates of unemployment and lower educational attainments. This has obvious and immediate negative effects on the community at large, the families involved, the individuals and the cost of territory money that could be better spent on strengthening the community.
These are highly complex and sensitive issues and, therefore, I believe, they require a highly skilled and suitably qualified panel of experts to inform the development of this blueprint. This work cannot be rushed as we have seen other initiatives rushed through, and nor can we treat it lightly. We require a measured and well-informed process that is led by the evidence-based research that was submitted by the Human Rights Commission in the youth justice review report.
The government has appointed a youth justice implementation task force to develop the blueprint, provide advice to the government and monitor the implementation of
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