Page 4751 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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supported in their role as national advocates for the rights of children and young people.
Primary prevention requires simultaneous efforts on multiple levels in order to promote and sustain lasting social and behavioural change. The first step towards such change in relation to child abuse is the development of policy frameworks that do not pretend that child abuse is the province of select target demographics or a few individuals. We need approaches that accept that child abuse is a widespread and harmful practice that is reinforced, unfortunately, every day by longstanding and problematic cultural beliefs and values.
The ACT Greens encourage all adults to ensure that NAPCAN and others are supported in their role as national advocates for the rights of children and young people to live in safe, nurturing, healthy and positive home environments.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women) (3.28): I would like to thank Ms Le Couteur for the opportunity to talk about this important community issue. Keeping our children and young people as safe as possible is a high priority for this government. As the new minister I would like to say firstly what this portfolio means to me. In my experience as a nurse and as a childcare centre operator, and through managing a family and child support service, I know how important families are to our most vulnerable children and young people. I know firsthand that strong and resilient families are vital to keeping our children as safe as possible.
Stronger families and stronger communities—that is what I will be working towards. And I intend to work hard—working hard and listening and investing and delivering. As the new minister I will be listening to families, listening to communities. I will be listening to the Children’s and Youth Services Council, to our Children’s Services Forum and their ideas to beat workforce constraints in the ACT, listening to the mums and young families in the territory around their playgroups and listening to dads about their work-life balance.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we will continue to invest—investing $250,000 in the forward design work to build a new child and family centre in Belconnen, investing $3 million to build two childcare centres in areas of high demand in the ACT, investing $1.9 million to expand the youth health services in Belconnen, Gungahlin and Tuggeranong. This investment in early intervention child health and early learning will continue.
We will also continue to deliver. We will deliver strong and more targeted early intervention and prevention initiatives—delivering access to 15 hours of preschool each week for the four-year-olds starting in our early education schools; delivering nearly $2.5 million over four years to improve services for vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families; and delivering a new child and family centre for the Belconnen region.
But today I would also like to talk around the importance of our early intervention in protecting all children, the importance of resilient families and of our support for child protection professionals who are keeping our children as safe as possible.
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