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Objectives of the Bill

The key objectives of the bill as set out in the Explanatory Notes are to:

• Close the Childrens Magistrates Court when hearing all youth justice matters under the Childrens Court Act 1992 and provide for victims or their representatives to be present in closed court.
• Increase the age at which children and young people subject to periods of detention under the Youth Justice Act 1992 are to be transferred to adult corrections from 17 to 18 years of age, and empower a court on application to delay a young person’s transfer for up to six months.
• Re-instate a court-referred youth justice conferencing program and expand the program to allow for increased flexibility in the delivery of restorative justice interventions as part of police-referred and court-referred conferencing.

The bill also proposes a consequential amendment to the Corrective Services Act 2006 to provide statutory recognition of the Supreme court decision in Coolwell v Chief Executive, Department of Justice and Attorney-General and Anor (No. 2) [2015] QSC 261, that a parole order issued in relation to a prisoner in adult corrections who was sentenced under the Youth Justice Act 1992 is a parole order for the purposes of the Corrective Services Act 2006.

The Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 and Explanatory Notes are available from the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel at www.legislation.qld.gov.au.

The Hansard transcript of the explanatory speech for the Bill is here.

Public Briefing

A public briefing regarding the Bill was held at Parliament House on 11 May 2016.  The briefing details and a written briefing from the relevant agency can be accessed under the Related Publications tab.  The proof transcript of the briefing is available under the Related Publications tab.  Final transcript will be published in due course.

Referral

On 21 April 2016, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Training and Skills, the Hon Yvette D’Ath MP, introduced the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 into the Queensland Parliament.  The bill was referred to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee for detailed consideration.

The committee is required to report on the bill by 6 June 2016.

The committee tabled its report on 6 June 2016.  It can be viewed under the Related Publications tab.

Submissions

Submissions closed on 9 May 2016.  Submissions received can be viewed under the Submissions tab.