Page 4753 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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learning. I will be meeting with youth and community groups and listening to their ideas, proposals and evidence about the problems that modern families are facing. I will be working with the community to develop solutions, solutions that build stronger families and stronger communities.
Early intervention is very important but so too is the work that is done before significant abuse and neglect are identified and when they are identified. Since 2004 when the Territory as Parent report was released, Care and Protection Services in the ACT has undergone a major reform program and continues to be committed to continuous improvement of service delivery. Of the 47 recommendations made in the Vardon report, to date 42 have been completed and five are underway.
Another review, the Murray-Mackie study, identified a further 50 recommendations. The progress report tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly in April of 2008 identified that 50 recommendations were completed and that recommendations remain as an ongoing process. Since this time, the remaining recommendations have been completed or partially completed.
As part of the reform agenda, a five-year process occurred to review and develop new legislation. The 2008 Children and Young People Act commenced stages on 1 July 2008. The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to review child welfare legislation in the context of a Human Rights Act. The act significantly reforms the law relating to care and protection, youth justice, the regulation of childcare services and the employment law for children and young people in the territory. It also embodies and expresses relevant international human rights standards for children and young people.
But the key to keeping our children as safe as possible is our teams of child protection professionals. These professionals are at the coalface. I am looking forward to meeting with them and hearing about their experiences firsthand. It is they who are responsible for protecting children in some of the most extreme situations and for trying to keep children out of those situations. It is not easy. It is sometimes traumatic and that is why the community expects the professionals to work hard to protect our children, and that is what they do.
Our care and protection professionals are doing a great job. They know probably better than I what a tough job they do. They are committed people, and for that commitment I thank them. I thank them and all their colleagues in the Department of Health and Community Services that provide quality depth of services to support the community of the Australian Capital Territory.
As a community, we are particularly privileged to have the support of so many care and protection professionals recruited from Ireland and the United States over the last few years. Due to this recruitment program, we now have a full complement of child protection professionals. Together they are building stronger families and a stronger community.
The government has also been supportive of children and young people who can no longer live at home because of abuse and neglect and where this leads to a court order. These children and young people are placed by care and protection workers in foster
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