Presented by

  • Emma Davidson

    Emma Davidson
    https://greens.org.au/act/person/emma-davidson

    Until November 2024*, Emma was the ACT Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Population Health, Minister for Community Services, Seniors and Veterans, and ACT Greens spokesperson for Disability, Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, and Digital Technology. Emma has previously worked as a social researcher and advocate in public health, women's health and social determinants of health and criminogenic pathways; as an open source software developer and IT manager in private and public sector and in Navy; and has been a volunteer worker and radical love activist for most of her life. Emma lives on Ngunnawal country (Canberra) with her family and dogs, and tries to find time for skating and live music in between her day job and volunteering. * Profile written 26 days before the ACT election - Emma may have a different job in January 2025.

Abstract

A justice reinvestment approach to community safety means redirecting more funding into health and social services that reduce the criminogenic factors in harmful behaviour. But in order to understand what works, and produce genuinely evidence-driven policy, we first need access to the data that tells us where the bottlenecks are in our systems - health, social services, policing, courts, and corrections. Using lessons learned from the ACT, let's talk about where the missing datasets are, and how we can use them to more effectively prevent harmful behaviour and improve wellbeing for everyone. This talk draws on the ACT experience of raising minimum age of criminal responsibility, decriminalisation of small quantities of illicit substances for personal use, establishing affirmative consent, criminalising the sharing of intimate images without consent, and the beginnings of criminalisation of coercive control within a domestic and family violence context.