Dr WOODRUFF – Given that a disproportionate number of young people who are in Ashley Youth Detention centre are Aboriginal, have you funded a bail hostel safe home facility so that Aboriginal young people won’t be sent to Ashley when they should instead be bailed and going into a home? I think you haven’t done that, minister. I think you’ve not actually funded a home as promised.
Mr JAENSCH – You’ve asked me the question, and you’ve told me what the answer is in your view. My version of that is that we desperately need more options for diversion, for bail, and for alternatives to sentencing and detention for all young people. Aboriginal people, as you point out, are disproportionately represented in that population. That’s why we are working with non‑government organisations of a range of kinds, including Aboriginal community‑controlled organisations, about what roles they can take in providing supports and wraparound services for young people who may be at risk of entering our youth justice system, or who are exiting it and need those supports outside of it.
Our picture of that, at the moment, is more of individualised case management with wraparound services for young people, rather than building a home to put them in, which –
Dr WOODRUFF – Will it allow children to be bailed, which is the point of the bail hostel?
Mr JAENSCH – It will enable children to be bailed, which means –
Dr WOODRUFF – At 11.00 p.m. on a Friday night, instead of them getting put in the back of a paddy wagon and taken to Ashley, will they have a home to go to so that does not happen?
Mr JAENSCH – Yes. That’s the intention, for as many young people as possible.
Dr WOODRUFF – Funded by you?
CHAIR – Order, Dr Woodruff.
Mr JAENSCH – Can I speak to your question, please? Stop interrupting me.
Dr WOODRUFF – Well, are you paying for the house, or are you paying for someone else to do that job?
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, please cease interjecting and allow the minister to finish. We only have a minute to go.
Mr JAENSCH – What I’m trying to put across to you is that you are talking about a house where we put children. We are talking about –
Dr WOODRUFF – Yes, it’s called a home.
Mr JAENSCH – I give up.
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, please stop interjecting.
Dr WOODRUFF – But you’re not doing the thing you promised.
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, please allow the minister to finish his answer.
Mr JAENSCH – Right across the state, wherever a young person, through their behaviours and their circumstances, is apprehended by police and is to be brought before a JP or a court, we need there to be supports and solutions in their community where they live that can support them to meet conditions of bail in the system as their matters are being delivered. It’s not necessarily a building built by the government where we put young people. That’s what Ashley has become, and it’s not a good thing. What we are trying to do is to take a service response to this in the first instance, which can be far more –
Dr WOODRUFF – That is absolutely shameful. That is completely dishonest.
CHAIR – Order.
Dr WOODRUFF – You promised something and you’re not delivering on that critical thing.
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, order. Please allow the minister to finish.
Dr WOODRUFF – The commission of inquiry recommendation, that was. You’re not fulfilling the commission of inquiry recommendation.
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, order.
Mr JAENSCH – The commission of inquiry’s recommendations align very strongly with our Youth Justice Blueprint –
Dr WOODRUFF – 12B, I believe.
Mr JAENSCH – which involves there being a 24‑hour bail service available across the state. That doesn’t necessarily mean a building where we take young people to, but it may mean that we have relationships with a wide variety of service providers – some of whom provide accommodation, some of whom provide accommodation with other supports, some who provide supports to people who provide accommodation – so that we can have an individualised response to young people across the state, flexible, tailored to their needs. Not a building where we put young people, because that’s what Ashley is.
Dr WOODRUFF – It’s not a building, it’s just a place for children to stay safe.
Mr JAENSCH – You keep saying ‘building’.
Dr WOODRUFF – Yes, it is a home. That’s why children don’t get bailed. It’s because they don’t have a home to go to. You know that.
Mr JAENSCH – Thank you for your advice. Sometimes it’s the home they’re getting away from.
