Who we are
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate seeks to maintain a fair, safe and peaceful community in the ACT where people’s rights and interests are respected and protected. This is achieved through maintaining the rule of law, promoting the protection of human rights in the Territory and providing effective offender management and opportunities for rehabilitation. The Directorate is further committed to protecting and preserving life, property and the environment and providing an effective and cohesive emergency response service.
Our Mission
Our mission is to maintain a fair, safe and peaceful community in the ACT where people’s rights and interests are respected and protected.
Our Values
We pride ourselves on being a directorate whose attitudes and actions are consistent with the ACT public Services values and behaviours. These values and behaviours are embraced in the JACS Strategic Plan 2017-19.
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate and agencies under the portfolio provide services to the entire Canberra community in areas of:
- justice
- emergency preparedness and response; and
- protection of rights.
We also provide services across the ACT government including legal advice and legal representation and in specialised areas of legislative drafting.
The systems that deliver these services are directed at:
- maintaining the rule of law as anticipated by the Westminster style of democratic government
- promoting the protection of human rights in the Territory
- protecting and preserving life, property and the environment
- providing effective and cohesive emergency response and management, and
- drafting, implementing and enforcing legislation.
The directorate is continually involved in the law-making process. It plays a critical role in maintaining and reforming the ACT’s body of law. The Directorate advises the Attorney-General, the Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and the Government in general to ensure that ACT laws meet the needs of our changing society.
Approximately half of the Government’s legislative reform is prepared by the directorate. The directorate also provides the Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and the Government with internal scrutiny services for consistency with the Human Rights Act 2004 and with the legal framework of the Territory as a whole.
The directorate also provides a range of justice, legal and community safety systems by working in partnership with a range of independent judicial and statutory officers who exercise statutory responsibilities.
