PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM - A QUEENSLAND CASE-STUDY

The paper examines critically the relationship between the rhetoric an d reality of the then Queensland Government's consultation procedures in relation to the 1992 Juvenile Justice Bill. It is argued that altho ugh the State Government viewed consultation as central to the process of social policy reform, the steps adopted to achieve this in the cas e 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 Q ueensland Government's hasty attempt to appease public concern over ju venile crime. and the absence of a practise model to implement it's st ated aims of public consultation. This in turn sewed to enhance the po litical legitimacy of the Labor Government in the period prior to its re-election in September 1992.