Page 2164 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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law, policy and practice on children; fourth, regular monitoring and reporting of indicators of children’s health, wellbeing, learning and development; fifth, services, programs and environments that support children’s optimal development and enhance parental family and community capacity; and, sixth, effective structures for governance across government and the community.
As Minister for Children and Young People, I will be committing the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services to establish a children and young people’s task force. This task force will be responsible for providing whole-of-government leadership and coordination—and to drive strategic initiatives to assist Canberra to become a child friendly city.
The first priority of the ACT children and young people’s task force will be to develop a whole-of-government action plan based on the building blocks for a child friendly city. Part of this action plan will involve establishing appropriate government mechanisms that include non-government stakeholders. These mechanisms will also include opportunities for children to be consulted and to participate.
The task force will produce annual progress reports detailing initiatives and progress towards developing Canberra as a child friendly and youth friendly city. The progress reports will be tabled in the ACT Assembly each year. My department, DHCS, will be the lead agency. This is truly a whole-of-government and whole-of-community framework to share responsibility for children’s health and wellbeing. Implementation will require a collaborative multi-agency approach.
I am sure that members of the Assembly who attended the launch of the children’s plan last week—I note that Meredith Hunter and Caroline Le Couteur were there and looking at the world through the eyes of the children for the short time that we were there—would agree that the launch and the response from the community were very positive. We had over 180 children and adults attending the launch. It was a very successful and wonderful experience. The children from Ngunnawal primary school came and gave their advice on what they saw for Canberra as a child friendly city. There was certainly a list of tasks. We here could not have constructed a better and more salient list about what was important for us as a community. Madam Assistant Speaker and members of the Assembly, I look forward to your support in endorsing this whole-of-government focus on children and their families.
Papers
Mr Corbell presented the following papers:
Subordinate legislation (including explanatory statements unless otherwise stated)
Legislation Act, pursuant to section 64—
Adoption Act—Adoption (Fees) Determination 2010 (No 1)—Disallowable Instrument DI2010-51 (LR, 29 April 2010).
Animal Welfare Act—
Animal Welfare (Animals Used on Film Sets) Code of Practice 2010—Disallowable Instrument DI2010-84 (LR, 24 May 2010).
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