Page 2555 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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Tuesday, 5 June 2012
MR SPEAKER (Mr Rattenbury) took the chair at 10 am, made a formal recognition that the Assembly was meeting on the lands of the traditional custodians, and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
Minister for Community Services
Motion of want of confidence
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.02), by leave: I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) the 2004 report on the Review of the Safety of Children in Care in the ACT and of ACT Child Protection Management by the then Commissioner for Public Administration, titled The Territory as Parent;
(b) the Vardon Report “shows there are consequences for children from a statutory system which has been failing, staff with workloads that simply could not be met, adversarial attitudes between people meant to be working together for children and high staff turnover at all levels”;
(c) the interim report of the ACT Public Advocate of her Review of the Emergency Response Strategy for Children in Crisis in the ACT released in October 2011;
(d) the interim report recommends “organisational and systemic changes in response to the managerial deficiencies, poor communication and inadequate executive briefing that allowed the breaching of legislation and policies and procedures, that have had a serious and detrimental impact on children for whom the Director General has parental responsibility”;
(e) the final report of the ACT Public Advocate of her Review of the Emergency Response Strategy for Children in Crisis in the ACT, titled Who is looking out for the Territory’s children? released in May 2012;
(f) the final report’s commentary on matters such as “systemic problems”, “reactive culture”, “defensive environment and workplace” and elements of the 2004 Vardon Report remaining “relevant today”;
(g) the seven recommendations made in the report;
(h) the consistent findings of successive high-level reports between 2004 and 2012;
(i) the ACT Government has failed children and young people engaged in the care and protection system for at least the last eight years; and
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