Australian Government: Attorney-General's Department
Australian Government: Attorney-General's DepartmentAchieving a Just and Secure Society

2008 Federal Criminal Justice Forum

The Federal Criminal Justice Forum was held in Canberra on 29 September 2008 at Old Parliament House.  As the Minister responsible for federal criminal justice, the Minister for Home Affairs convened the Forum to enable a wide range of voices to be heard in formulating ideas for reform.  The Forum brought together a diverse group of over 150 participants from the judiciary, the legal profession, law enforcement and government, academia, business, unions and community organisations. 

Ideas raised during the Forum included: simplifying extradition and mutual assistance procedures, implementing recommendations from the ALRCs 2006 report on sentencing and addressing Indigenous disadvantage in the criminal justice system by coordinating efforts at the State, Territory and Commonwealth levels.

All of the proposals and ideas generated at the Forum will be made available on the Forum website within the coming months.

The outcomes of the Forum will be reported on and considered by Government to assist in developing reform priorities.

The Government will report on what has been done with the ideas emerging from the Forum and related activities, as part of its continuing engagement with the community in the process of criminal law reform.

Forum Documents

Documents provided to participants during the Forum are available below:

Report on lead up activities to the Federal Criminal Justice Forum, which incudes: ideas raised at the roundtables held in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; ideas submitted through the Attorney-General's Department website and student essays nominated by Professor Fox as the best essays in his ‘Federal Criminal Law’ course.

Other documents provided to participants include:

Australian Federal Police Association submission canvassing reform ideas raised by its members.

Australian Human Rights Commission paper on human rights and crime prevention Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (Qld) Ltd paper on issues relating to Indigenous justice and crime prevention.

If you have difficulties downloading any of the documents on this page, please contact: criminal.law@ag.gov.au