Minister, Legal Aid provides assistance to children in the Youth Justice Division of the magistrate's court and offers an after-hours duty lawyer service in collaboration with the Hobart Community Legal Service. How many children and young people have received assistance through the duty lawyer services over the past year, and what percentage of those cases involved unrepresented defendants?
Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to respond to comments made last Thursday by the Minister for Children and Youth in answer to a question I asked about the closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
It has long been recognised that Ashley Youth Detention Centre is an unsafe place for young Tasmanians. Young people have been abused and their rights have been repeatedly violated.
I have a few questions for the Attorney-General about the first charge evidence provisions contained in the proposed new section 430 in the Criminal Code. Community Legal Centres Tasmania recommended that this be amended to ensure that acts committed when the accused person was a child be excluded from these provisions.
The latest reports from the Office of the Custodial Inspector reveals concerning ongoing reliance on lockdowns stemming from chronic staff shortages in Tasmania’s prisons and youth detention centre.
Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak on the most critical matter of public importance - the children in Ashley Youth Detention Centre. The commission of inquiry made it very clear that there are live and current risks for children at Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff must immediately abandon his harmful “tough on crime” approach to youth justice, and establish a taskforce to reduce the number of children in youth detention.
Do you admit your approach to youth crime utterly contradicts the commission of inquiry's findings?
We know that when people experience intergenerational trauma, intergenerational poverty and disadvantage, that they are deeply affected.
Police Minister Felix Ellis has cast a further cloud over his government’s commitment to implementing the recommended therapeutic approach to youth justice in parliament today.