Access Canberra Contact Centre

All enquiries for the Directorate can come via the facilities offered by Access Canberra.

Access Canberra provides services from 7am to 8pm AEDT Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm AEDT Saturday and 9am-5pm on Sunday.

Access Canberra operators will be able to forward your calls to the correct area.

You can also submit questions, comment and feedback online via the Access Canberra Online Customer Feedback system. You can choose to submit feedback anonymously. If you require a response, you will need to provide contact details.

Contacting the Ministers

Correspondence for the Attorney-General, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services or the Minister for Justice can be addressed to:

ACT Legislative Assembly
GPO Box 1020
Canberra ACT 2601

JACS Directorate Contacts

All contact details are available each business units website:

• ACT Emergency Services Agency
• ACT Courts and Tribunal
• ACT Corrective Services
• ACT Ombudsman
• ACT Policing
• Director of Public Prosecutions
• Federal Privacy Commissioner
• Human Rights Commission
• Legal Aid ACT
• Public Advocate of the ACT
• Public Trustee for the ACT
• Victim Support ACT

Media contacts

Specific information for media is provided in the media room.

Translation Services - Ph: 131450

The Australian Government's interpreting service can supply telephone or on site interpreting. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is accessible from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call.

Other organisations that provide interpreting and translating services can be found in the yellow pages of the telephone book under 'Translations' and 'Interpreters'.

Translating web pages and short sentences

The following websites provide translation of short sentences and whole web pages into certain languages free of charge.

• http://www.freetranslation.com/…

• http://www.google.com/…

Feedback and complaints 

The ACT Government values feedback as a mechanism to assess its performance and improve the quality of its services and our staff.

The Justice and Community Safety Service Charter [PDF 150 KB] outlines what you can expect from the Directorate. In all parts of its operations, the Directorate aims to meet the expectations of its clients and stakeholders in delivering services to the community.

If you are not satisfied with our conduct or you believe we have failed to comply with ACT Government legislation or our Service Charter, you are free to raise the matter directly as a complaint, an allegation or a concern.

The Directorate aims to provide an accessible, fair, and transparent complaint process for all clients and stakeholders. This is in keeping with the ACT Government values of respect, integrity, collaboration and innovation. The JACS Complaints Management Policy [PDF 577 KB] outlines the Directorate’s commitment to responding to feedback in a timely and constructive manner.  

How to provide feedback and complaints

Providing feedback, asking questions, or making a complaint can be done via Access Canberra. Access Canberra provides a broad range of searchable answers to questions. It is also the central point for gathering and facilitating responses to feedback.  All feedback submissions via any of the Access Canberra facilities – phone, online, over the counter, or in writing, are directed to the Directorate.

Alternatively, feedback or complaints can be addressed to:

Executive Director Governance
Justice and Community Safety Directorate
PO Box 158
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Contact Number:  620 74813

Or

Email:  JACS Enquiries or JACS Complaints

A form is available to assist you in making a complaint. [DOC 89 KB]

When making a complaint, it is recommended that you advise us of any outcome you may be seeking. This may include an apology, a different decision, or expedited action. Be aware however, that whilst the Directorate will endeavour to work with you to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction, the outcome or action you are seeking may not always be possible.

Feedback and complaints requiring investigation 

Feedback, suggestions or complaints received that relate to the performance, quality, and responsiveness of our services or our employees are considered and, where necessary, investigated.

Such investigations may follow specific processes depending on the service area. Access to feedback handling policies or mechanisms within the Justice and Community Safety Portfolio can be accessed at:

Feedback that will not be investigated 

The Directorate will not investigate complaints if:

• There is insufficient information to investigate the complaint.
• The Directorate is not responsible for the legislation governing the complaint.
• The complaint is more appropriately investigated by another body such as ACT Policing, Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate or the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate.
• There is legislation that provides an appropriate or specific handling mechanism.
• The matter is currently before a Court, Tribunal, Board or Committee.
• There is no way of resolving the complaint.

 If the Directorate decides not the investigate your complaint, you will be advised of the grounds for this decision and any other options available to you for a resolution.

Our process for responding to feedback and complaints

1. The Directorate will endeavour to acknowledge receipt of the feedback or complaint within five working days.

2. The matter will be assessed by the business unit or, where a conflict of interest exists, another impartial area to determine whether an investigation is required. Further information may be requested at this stage to assist in assessing the complaint.

Every effort will be made to resolve straightforward issues quickly where they require little to no investigation. A resolution at this stage may take the form of an apology or explanation.

If warranted, the matter will be referred for investigation and an investigation plan will be prepared. Once an investigation has commenced, the Directorate will endeavour to keep you informed of its progress.

You will also be advised if a decision is made not to investigate the complaint and provided with reasons. You will also be advised of any alternative avenues that are available to you to seek a resolution.

3. The Directorate will endeavour to advise you of the outcome of your complaint within 21 days of completion of the investigation and outline any rights you may have to seek a review.

4. If the complaint is substantiated, the Directorate may undertake a range of actions, including but not limited to:

• resolution of any issues raised in the complaint
• revision of a policy, practice or procedure where the complaint reveals systemic or procedural weaknesses
• staff training
• staff debriefing/counselling.

4. You will be advised if the complaint cannot be resolved and provided details of other review mechanisms.

Confidentiality

All complaints will be treated with confidentiality. It may be necessary however, for the Directorate to seek further information from staff or refer information on to another area to enable the matter to be resolved. When making a complaint, please advise the Directorate if you have any specific confidentiality concerns/requirements for these to be discussed.

Our commitment to dealing with feedback

The Directorate seeks to respond to feedback in a manner which is responsive, fair, respectful and which provides a quality outcome. This is in keeping with our Values. The Directorate endeavours to respond to feedback in a timely manner, and to keep the correspondents informed of the progress of their enquiry.  

The Directorate treats all feedback confidentially.  To effectively respond, the Directorate may seek further information from staff or may refer information on to other area to assist in resolving the matter. 

A decision to not proceed in considering feedback will be made by persons who are not involved with the matter, the subject of the feedback, or who have a conflict of interest in the matter.

The Directorate will ensure that all feedback is reviewed at a senior level within the Directorate.  Complaints received and the resolution of those complaints will be reported on regularly to the Director-General.

Website feedback

We want to continually improve the structure and content of this website. We are particularly keen to know:

• What you are looking for on the site and the ease or difficulty in finding it.
• If you had problems finding it, what they were.
• Whether you had any technical difficulties.
• If you used a search facility—what you were looking for, the search terms you used and whether the system found what you wanted.
• How you think the site could be improved.

When sending feedback about your experience please include the address (url) of the pages you refer to and a description of what actions you took before you encountered any error. This will help us to investigate the problem more fully.

All feedback can be sent to the Directorate's website administrator, or call 13 22 81.