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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (1 July) . . Page.. 1956 ..
responsibilities to children themselves. It specifically provides that it is then the place of the community and government to support them or, if necessary, share or take over their responsibilities. In establishing a new mechanism for court-ordered 'therapeutic protection', it also recognises that a very small number of children and young people in the community may be at very high risk. Again I shall return to this shortly.
First let me stress that all child protection matters are informed from the outset by the principle that Government intervention in the lives of families is to be by the least intrusive means possible. This is reflected in a general way by measures calling for consideration and promotion of contact and placement of children and young people with relatives or kin if out-of-home care is needed. It also underpins a new mechanism of voluntary 'family group conferencing'. This concept aims to empower families to reach agreement amongst themselves as to the alternative ways they can continue to care for children and young people in their midst. It is a model which is also incorporated in 1998 legislation in Tasmania, and which has operated successfully for many years in South Australia and New Zealand.
FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCING
For the information of Members, family group conferences are to be arranged by the chief executive if he or she believes that a child or young person is in need of care and protection. Appropriately skilled facilitators appointed by the chief executive will convene conferences by inviting attendance of family members and others who may have a relevant contribution to the care planning for the child or young person. It is intended that conferences be conducted in as informal, confidential, non-adversarial a setting (in the absence of lawyers) as possible. Disclosure of information shared at a conference is prohibited, except for the purpose of recording the outcome. Outcomes will be capable of registration in a court if they have the effect of shifting parental responsibility for the child or young person.INCLUSIVENESS
The notion of inclusiveness is repeated throughout the Bill. Hence, in decision-making processes about a child or young person, information about those processes is to be provided to participants in a manner they can understand. The views and wishes of the child or young person are to be sought and considered in light of their age and maturity, and others are to be given an opportunity for input.This is particularly the case in relation to indigenous children and young people, who were not mentioned in the current Childrens Services Act. Following from the 1997 Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (the 'Bringing them home' Report), the Bill now
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