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PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM: A QUEENSLAND CASE STUDY
Author(s) -
Hil Richard,
Roughley Leanne
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1997.tb01290.x
Subject(s) - project commissioning , legitimacy , economic justice , government (linguistics) , publishing , public administration , juvenile , rhetoric , political science , state (computer science) , politics , sociology , law , criminology , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , biology , computer science , genetics
The paper examines critically the relationship between the rhetoric and reality of the then Queensland Government's consultation procedures in relation to the 1992 Juvenile Justice Bill. It is argued that although the State Government viewed consultation as central to the process of social policy reform, the steps adopted to achieve this in the case of the Juvenile Justice Bill were regarded widely as inadequate in a number of important respects. We contend that such shortcomings were generated by a number of interconnected factors, not least being the Queensland Government's hasty attempt to appease public concern over juvenile crime, and the absence of a practise model to implement it's stated aims of public consultation. This in turn served to enhance the political legitimacy of the Labor Government in the period prior to its re‐election in September 1992.