Page 405 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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The Children and Young People Act 1999 provided for an operational review within three years of the act’s commencement. According to the government, a comprehensive review has been undertaken, involving extensive community consultation, and it has resulted in a two-phase reform process. The first phase proposes changes to the principles of the act in this round of amendments as well as in the areas of care and protection and of information protection.
The opposition notes that the bill seeks to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families through improving their participation in decision making that affects their lives, preserving and enhancing the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, and improving the recognition and assessment of children and young people at risk of abuse and neglect. It is evident that the government is determined to implement these amendments at this point in time in the hope that an apparent and immediate positive impact will occur and further aid service providers to deliver improved forms of intervention, care and assistance to young people and/or families.
Mr Speaker, the review appears to have identified that the particular principles outlined in this amendment relating to the participation of children and young people in decision making require strengthening. The opposition supports that and acknowledges the government’s clear determination through what appears to be a genuine, albeit long, process of consultation. I would say at this point that the length of time that it has taken would seem to indicate, as I think Minister Gallagher said, that it is a long and complex act.
We are at a point now where we have two tranches of this review going through and further amendments will be moved in August, I understand, which will reveal the full intent of the government’s changes to the act. I am guessing and we are hoping that allowing these amendments to go through today is the government’s way of being able to test whether they are workable and will prove to have good outcomes in relation to what the government is proposing to do in August.
The amendments seem to arrive finally at placing firmer acknowledgment in law on the key areas of care and protection by way of installing a new principle to assist with helping families understand care and protection procedures. I can see that it is important to guide the actions of decision makers regarding consultation with and participation of children and young people and people with parental responsibility in decision making.
It is acknowledged on this side of the Assembly that for any care and protection decision to be progressed the decision maker must make attempts to ensure that the child or young person, their legal representative and people with parental responsibility understand the nature of the decision and the decision-making process. It seems that an attempt has been made to ensure that they can participate in the decision-making process, put forward viewpoints and, once a final decision has been arrived at, feel that to be genuinely heard was the most important part of the communicative process.
I note that the best interests principle is to become the paramount consideration for decision makers across the ACT, except for young offenders, whereas the general principles will be applied except where the application would be contrary to the best
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