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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 323 ..

Why a ministerial staffer’s name was bandied about on radio was puzzling. Who gave that name to the radio station? This issue has turned into a dirty political game at the expense of child protection—just for a little media gratification and political point-scoring. It is done at the expense of the inquiry and its dedicated people in the department.

I will close with this: there are some self-proclaimed political geniuses in this place who come up with sporadic ideas thinking they will get a brownie point or a line in the newspaper. This is one time those self-proclaimed political geniuses could stay behind their desks in their offices and come up with something of value to the community, rather than looking at compromising an inquiry that in the end is in the interests of the children in this city.

MS DUNDAS (4.15): I thought that today we were going to debate child protection in the ACT and hopefully come up with some strategies about how to further support our children in the territory, as opposed to having a rehash of the debates which have occurred during question time. Due to recent revelations, I believe we have an opportunity to achieve some positive outcomes. I am hopeful that the current review of child protection in the territory will give us an opportunity to move forward and discuss better models and ideas for child protection from around the world. I am equally hopeful that the review will find that more resources need to go into youth and family services and that child protection workers, in particular, in the ACT need to be better paid and supported, as do a lot of the frontline workers.

Similar reviews have taken place in other jurisdictions. Out of these reviews has come a renewed focus on how child protection agencies operate. In Queensland, the government has in place a 24-hour a day service to support children and families. The service is meant to troubleshoot difficulties and ensure healthier homes. Whilst we have had a commitment from the government to increase staffing numbers, these are still at a level of concern. We must therefore address underlying issues and provide practical support for staff and for kids at risk of abuse or neglect in their homes.

The federal government is sponsoring a 24-hour a day helpline for carers, with the provision of respite. These are innovative ideas that we may need to look at implementing to help child protection workers here in the territory, because disadvantaged families should not be left to face difficulties alone. Family counselling, respite support, health advice, dispute resolution and help with substance abuse problems are all necessary to help people become good parents to their kids.

We should be looking at the kind of model we want in the ACT for a commissioner for children and young people. That is referred to in chapter 10 of the community services report, where the committee recommended the appointment of a commissioner for children and young people to support young people in the ACT community. I was pleased to see that the government supported that recommendation and have committed themselves to a process. We have seen the position of commissioner for children and young people work successfully in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. Victoria and South Australia are also heading down that path.

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