Page 4635 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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At this point I want to digress from the prepared statement for one minute and acknowledge the work of the ACT Greens in this and their interest in this important area. I do appreciate an informed discussion. This is an important matter indeed. I thank the Assembly for leave to make the statement and I table the following paper:
Maximising potential: Improving life transitions for young people in care—Ministerial statement, 19 October 2010.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (4.05): I am pleased to have the opportunity to be able to respond to the statement today. This is indeed an incredibly important issue and one that the ACT needs to be doing better on. At the moment we are not providing, I believe, the right amount of support for our young people who are transitioning out of the care and protection system.
To that end, as many members in this place would know, a couple of weeks ago I released a discussion paper, Strengthening our support of young people transitioning out of care: a new framework. I will be tabling that paper tomorrow here in the Assembly. That was an opportunity to really get out there the issues that are facing young people transitioning out of care.
We have had the CREATE report card 2009, which paints quite a grim picture of the outcomes for many young people—the high rates of homelessness and unemployment, the low rates of education attainment, and also the high rates of interaction with the justice system. These are issues that we really do need to take on board. The paper outlines that in other jurisdictions support is being provided for a longer period of time—up to the ages of 21 or 25 years—and that here in the ACT we need to catch up.
This is an issue that I am very passionate about, having worked in the youth sector for more than 10 years and having had quite a lot of engagement and interaction with organisations supporting young people, many of whom were in the care and protection system, or had been, and also with the young people themselves, many of them incredibly inspiring young people. Of course, over the years, many of them made it quite clear that they felt that they needed far more support than they were able to access.
I followed that up with a forum that was held a couple of weeks ago. That was an opportunity for some important players in this field. They included Annette Kelly-Egerton from Barnardos, Dr Justin Barker, Marion Le and Sue Mannion, covering the kinship care and foster care areas. Dr Morag McArthur, the Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies, facilitated that event. That was really part of the consultation to try and find a new way forward on this important issue. When I came into the Assembly, that was an issue that I knew I was going to pursue. I am pleased that I was able to get out there on the front foot a few weeks ago.
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