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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (25 February) . . Page.. 391 ..

MS TUCKER: My question is to Mr Stefaniak as Minister for Family Services. I have given his office two or three hours' notice of this question. My question is in relation to Marlow Cottage, previously known as Kaleen Youth Shelter. Minister, how many young people have been referred by Family Services to Marlow Cottage, which is now managed by the Richmond Fellowship, over the past 12 months? How many of these are on bail; how many are on final court orders under the Children's Services Act?

MR STEFANIAK: I thank the member for the question. As a result of the time available, I have the following information for her: Ms Tucker, I am advised that approximately 150 placements of young people have been referred by Family Services since January 1996. That has involved 84 actual young people. I would imagine, on those figures, perhaps some of them have gone back more than once. Approximately eight of those, I am advised, would have been on bail in regard to Children's Court matters. The majority are on children in need of care orders. Those orders are both final orders and interim orders leading up to final orders. In terms of any further or additional statistics, I would be happy to provide those to you, Ms Tucker, at a later date.

MS TUCKER: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. How does the Minister justify this in light of the fact that the Richmond Fellowship is provided with funding for only, at most, two staff members who are not trained to deal with young people experiencing severe behavioural problems? Is the Minister aware that this practice of mixing the two groups contravenes article 40, paragraph 3, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that parties to the agreement should establish institutions specifically applicable to children accused of or having infringed the penal law?

MR STEFANIAK: I think you probably have the wrong end of the stick a bit there, Ms Tucker. Marlow Cottage, and indeed its predecessor, which was run by the department, is a very useful adjunct both to the court system in Canberra and to looking after children in need of a special type of care. It fills a very necessary gap which would otherwise appear in terms of placement in foster care of children staying in the home or, right at the end of the process, I suppose, sadly, children who are actually incarcerated in an institution such as Quamby.

As you know, Ms Tucker, the Richmond Fellowship is currently the body responsible for the shelter known as Marlow Cottage. That fellowship is an extremely professional and caring organisation which does excellent work with children who are referred to the shelter. Young people referred to Marlow Cottage usually have emotional disturbances and family problems. The shelter is set up for short-term crisis placements. Young people are found longer-term placements as soon as possible. Because of the degree of special needs, some children are there for longer because longer-term placements are harder to find.

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