Youth Justice Act 2024

The core condition of a community service order is that the child in respect of whom the order is made performs community service activities—

for the number of hours specified in the order; and

at the place and at the dates or times directed by the Secretary.

Subject to subsection (3), the Secretary may direct that the child perform community service activities—

at or in relation to a community service organisation; or

in the child's local community; or

as part of a mentoring, skills development or cultural program.

The Secretary must not direct the child to engage in any community service activities so as to take the place of some other person who would usually be engaged in those activities for hire or reward if the other person—

is absent from those activities because of an industrial dispute involving that other person's employer; or

is otherwise available and willing to perform the work required in those activities.

Community service activities may be performed by the child under the supervision of the Secretary or any person or organisation approved by the Secretary, either generally or in the particular case, that agrees to supervise the child's performance of the activities.

If a direction under subsection (2) requires the child to engage in community service activities—

for the purposes of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 and the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 or any other Act or law, the child is taken to be a worker employed by the Crown; and

for the purposes of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 and the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013, the weekly earnings of the child are to be taken to be—

an amount equivalent to the weekly earnings of the child in any full-time employment in which the child is engaged at that time; or

if the child is not engaged in full-time employment at that time, an amount which the Minister administering those Acts considers reasonable in the circumstances of the case; and

the child is not entitled to receive any remuneration for performing those community service activities.