Page 4756 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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The ACT Greens, like all parties, acknowledge that there is much to do and that we need to be able to make significant inroads to tackling child abuse and neglect. Foster care and kinship care groups that come to see me are doing an outstanding job in providing support for these children. I would also like to echo the comments made by the Minister for Children and Young People around our care and protection workers and the many other members of the department who work in other programs surrounding that care and protection workforce.
They are an incredibly important part of the work that goes on in this area, it is a very hard job. I do acknowledge and respect the work that they do. The thing that is continually raised is not the need necessarily for financial or additional financial support from kinship carers, but access to information about what they are entitled to and general support from government departments in performing the most important job that they are doing, which is either raising grandchildren, nieces or nephews—other family members.
So we do ask the minister to listen and provide as much support as possible for kinship and foster carers so that helping children that do go into their care can be a nurturing and, I guess, a stable situation for those children in those very important years, their childhood years.
I would also like to make some general comments about care and protection. As was mentioned, there was an inquiry some years ago, and the result of that inquiry was the Territory as Parent report. A lot has happened since that report was released. There has been an increased funding commitment, there has been increased staff, particularly front-line care and protection workers and, as was reported, many of them were recruited from the United Kingdom.
Unfortunately, what we have also seen is a rise in the number of reports of children who are suffering from abuse and neglect and, as I said, the number of children who are going into out-of-home care. I was interested to hear the minister say that of the Territory as Parent report recommendations, 42 have been completed and five were on the way.
One of the things I do think still needs to be picked up on is the issue around a child death review team. This was one of those recommendations. In the very tragic and unfortunate situation of a child dying, it is important not only we go through a coronial sort of process, but also that it be looked at in the context of how did our care and protection system perform.
By that I do not just mean Care and Protection sitting over at the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Service. I mean everybody, because this is a whole-of-community problem, a whole-of-community issue that we all play a part in. How did we all perform in that particular situation and where can we make improvements? I continue to urge that the establishment of a child death review team be looked at.
I also was very pleased to note that I got an invitation to the launch of the charter of rights of children in care. I very much look forward to attending that launch. That
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