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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 952 ..

MS GALLAGHER (continuing):

for a particular issue and to encourage and support governments to continue to be proactive on important issues.

The march on Sunday is not a charade; it is democracy-positive, peaceful, active, democracy-and as such this Assembly should support it. The National March for Children presents an opportunity for all those who support the rights of children to happy, abuse-free childhoods to show this support, and it is a shame that Mr Cornwell cannot honour his duty to his shadow portfolio and show the same support.

Just because children cannot vote does not mean that they do not deserve the same attention from government as the rest of us receive. Rather, they deserve our particular protection. Mr Cornwell's comments were badly timed and pre-empt any positive outcome from Sunday's events by attacking the organisers of the march.

If Mr Cornwell was serious about his shadow portfolio, he would not use it to peddle his archaic vision of the perfect family. Rather, he would recognise that it is not some moral calamity related to a relaxed attitude to the marital state that is to blame for child abuse but a breakdown in our community.

In the ACT, for the period 1999-2000, 84 per cent of abused children were abused by a natural parent, compared to 4 per cent by a step-parent, while de facto parents did not appear in the statistics. It would seem to me that Mr Cornwell should stop using his conservative and outdated moral agenda and seriously look at the interconnection between poverty, social alienation and the abuse of children. Of course parents should be taking responsibility for their children, but our community and our government also have a responsibility to support and assist parents in their roles are care givers.

Mr Cornwell's comments are indicative of what the march on Sunday is fighting against. The main problem faced by those who, be it via community awareness and education or through legislation, seek to protect children from abuse is the dismissal of the problem by those who see child abuse as the result of moral failing within the family unit and therefore not a social problem that should be addressed. Child abuse should never suffer from the "someone else's problem" syndrome but should be viewed as a problem that we all have a responsibility to combat.

I would like to read a statement by Hetty Johnston, the national organiser of the March for Children on Sunday. It reads:

By rejecting the efforts of Ms Johnston in organising the march, and by denying the importance of community action and support on this issue, Mr Cornwell has demonstrated that he does not support this statement. I would hope, however, that Ms Johnston's statement is in fact one that we can all support here today, and in doing so demonstrate to our community that this Assembly recognises the rights of all children to be free from abuse, the value of community actions that support that right and the duty of governments the world over to deliver to children the protection they deserve. I commend this motion to the Assembly.

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