Page 1532 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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Family Studies supports this approach, as the following statement shows:
In this Institute's view, only a coordinated policy approach which is fully aware of the altered structural circumstances of young people in Australia has any hope of success in meeting youth needs and providing a positive future for them. The pressures facing young people result from an unprecedented period of change affecting all Australians. In that context, youth issues should be seen as a central part of family policy. Youth policy cannot sit aside from family policies, nor can solutions be found which ignore the integral links between family, education and work via that central task of parenting, of bringing our children towards competent adulthood.
Mr Speaker, when families in their many manifestations become - and I use a word that is now part of the language of this area - dysfunctional and individuals and families are marginalised, then the costs to the community and to the individuals are great. By the changes that we have made to administrative arrangements we have improved the prospects for a coordinated approach to these problems.
This Government takes the view that preventive strategies and support for the family must occur in the broader context of social and economic development for the community. This requires both a macro and a micro response. Our firm commitment to equitable policies and programs in housing, health, education, employment and community development will form the foundation from which targeted support for those with special needs can be most successfully provided. Our strategies for alleviation will focus on changing needs. While there will always be a demand for crisis assistance, a planned and proactive approach will help to reduce these needs.
Mr Speaker, as a government caring about our young and their families, it is appropriate that we have endorsed the set of principles to which the Council of Social Welfare Ministers agreed at its special conference on youth homelessness last June. These principles are that: firstly, families provide the optimal setting for the care and support of children and young people; secondly, governments should assist families to carry out their child rearing and support responsibilities, and assist in maintaining young people in families, noting the particular needs of families with adolescents; thirdly, governments have a responsibility to protect children and young people from disadvantage, exploitation and abuse, and to provide appropriate support services to achieve this; fourthly, governments should provide an environment and the support that will assist children and young people to move towards independence and full citizenship; fifthly, where young people cannot live within their own families, governments have a particular responsibility to provide specialised
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