Page 2194 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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focused on the ability to share information in the care and protection system in accordance with the Children and Young People Act.
The committee is of the view that several of the recommendations made in its report on part 2 of this inquiry are relevant to addressing the potential systemic issues it has raised in relation to part 1.
The committee has approached the remit given to it by the Assembly with great care and empathy and with a deeply held concern to ensure that any potential systemic issue arising is identified and addressed.
In its examination of the referred matter, the committee has applied careful, rigorous and thoughtful consideration and has been acutely aware of and alert to the sensitivity of the issues raised by this inquiry.
The committee thanks all those who contributed to its inquiry. The committee is acutely aware that decision-making in the care and protection space affects the rights of individuals in profound and life-changing ways. The committee acknowledges that questions about, and decision-making surrounding, the care and protection of children and young people in Canberra are often controversial and complex and require a balancing of rights. In that context, those working in the care and protection space work in a challenging, tough and complex environment. Equally important is that all in the Canberra community have a role to play in the wellbeing and safety of children and young people in our community.
The committee wishes to thank all of those who have contributed to this inquiry. The contributions assisted the committee in its understanding of the many issues it considered during this part of the inquiry.
As chair, I would like to thank my fellow committee members, Mrs Vicki Dunne and Ms Caroline Le Couteur, for their time, their contributions and the collaborative way the committee has worked through some wide-ranging and challenging issues in this profoundly important inquiry. Through these collaborative efforts, we have been able to deliver a unanimous report.
I would also like to thank Andréa Cullen for her help, assistance and ongoing ability to guide the committee through this very difficult and sometimes harrowing process for this report and inquiry. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.28): I want to augment what Ms Cody has said rather than replicate it. This was a very challenging inquiry because of its nature, in that it related in a quite unprecedented way to an individual case—committees, generally speaking, do not inquire into those—and the way in which it had to be handled because of the sensitivity of that. I want to compliment the committee and the people who participated.
In saying that, we have to put on the record that this committee could have reported finally back in March if there had been more willingness from officials and the minister to participate openly. At the outset, I found it extraordinarily frustrating that
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