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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 314 ..

Sadly, nothing can ever absolutely guarantee that no child will ever be at risk again from abuse and violence from within their own family. But we all desperately want to see people, practices and policies in place to make sure that the risk is as small as is humanly possible.

I believe that the sentiments expressed by Mr Blair are also relevant to the debate occurring in this country as we undergo a re-evaluation of our policy framework and intervention measures. This process is now under way in the ACT, and members of this Assembly have been fully informed of the developments in this territory this week.

Government must always recognise that it will face enormous challenges with child protection. This is not to avoid responsibility for the care of children in the territory; it is to recognise it as an area of continuing reform. It is an area that needs continual work; it is a policy area that needs to be constantly reviewed; it is an area where front-line work and case evaluation must be scrutinised to guarantee that the interests of children are met.

Also, scrutiny must be conducted by people with a degree of independence in the day-to-day managing of the issue. We must look to stakeholders and community groups to play a constructive and aware role in raising their concerns. This government is the first to address these issues systematically, and the members of the Assembly will see over coming months that it has a grasp of the issues in child protection and the ability to provide solutions to the complexities inherent in the child protection system.

Child protection systems nationally are dealing with a large increase in reports and subsequent investigations. These involve two main areas: reports of abuse, where a child is exposed to physical violence or abuse; and reports of parents failing to cope with the pressures of sometimes extraordinary circumstances. Over the last decade, right across Australia, there has been a marked increase in reports of neglect, a situation which governments must address at a local level, as they often involve drug dependence, domestic violence, homelessness and poverty. These are also broader policy issues for government, cutting across many departments.

This government, in its recently announced Social Plan, has put a direct spotlight on many of these issues, and we have focused our campaigns and initiatives for the future on these issues. Our values have informed the first comprehensive plan for the future wellbeing of all citizens in the territory. We have, of course, also been focusing our attention on many of the values behind the Social Plan. With the Social Plan, though, it becomes our responsibility as the government to move from the overarching principles and visions into the intricacies of specific policy development and service delivery. We have promised greater inclusion of community groups and stakeholders, and in the area of child protection this is occurring and will increase. The ACT children’s plan is in the process of being formulated, and it is just one of our strategies to address this issue.

We must be fully aware ourselves of what the key issues are in the child protection system in the ACT. We must be aware so as not to mislead public debate by misinforming our constituents on what the matters are and how government is addressing them. Making this a partisan debate falsely raises expectations as to what the role of the

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