Page 533 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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community. We also target secondary diversion programs for those young people who come to the attention of police or other agencies for exhibiting antisocial behaviours.
The government is committed to improving the outcomes for young people in the ACT. We are committed to ensuring that as few young people as possible come into contact with the youth justice system. For those young people that do come into contact with the youth justice system, we want to provide them with the right supports to foster a positive re-engagement with the community and to prevent further involvement in youth justice. That will benefit them if they get on with their life and have fulfilling lives participating broadly in the community in whatever their endeavours and aspirations could be.
A key part of diversion and redevelopment of youth justice is our blueprint. The implementation task force is going out and having direct conversations with the community as we look to develop the blueprint that will set out the broad, sweeping aspirations not only of my directorate but of all directorates within government so we understand clearly the intention of the community about supporting young children at risk to prevent them from entering the youth justice system. The youth justice commitment is a whole of government and community commitment ensuring that no young person is disengaged from meaningful education or training and employment opportunities, so they can continue to be positive and engaged members with our community.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we are delivering on prevention and diversion strategies. It is a loud and clear message that we hear across the community and from our expert advisers. The challenge for the government, the community and this place is to harness this clear message and to move forward collectively to achieve positive outcomes across the youth justice system in the interests of young people.
Finally, again, I would like to thank Ms Bresnan for bringing this matter forward. It is indeed an important matter of public interest. I am pleased to confirm the ACT government’s commitment to support our young offenders and our focus on early intervention and diversion in the youth justice system.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.07): I congratulate Ms Bresnan for bringing forward this matter and for the persistence of those on the crossbench in the area of prevention and diversion of young offenders. As with all things in this place it is incumbent upon the non-government members to keep this minister honest in these matters. We have a lot of talk, but the figures do not speak very well, and the history of this minister’s oversight of this part of her portfolio does not speak well.
It is within recent memory that we had a minister who was so intent on covering up the failings of the youth justice system that even when she went out to talk to staff at the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre she said that she was going there only to cover her backside. And when she heard things that she did not want to hear, we know that she stopped her ears and said, “La, la, la, la, la.”
The figures in the ROGS report show that there are matters that should be of considerable concern for all legislators and all parents in this territory. The rate at
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