Page 550 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.09): The Canberra Liberals will support Ms Hunter’s amendment in this area but will not support the government’s amendment. A concern I have had with this bill and the roles and functions of the committee is that the family of the deceased child or young person should not be dragged through all the emotional trauma associated with that death some time after that death when the death review committee commences its work. In many ways, they have already been through all of this with the coroner and sometimes other agencies such as the police. They should not be forced to go through this unnecessarily. The government amendment goes some way to achieving that, but the Greens’ amendment, although not perfect, goes even further. So I am happy to support it and give it a go. I will reserve the right to introduce an amendment at a later date if this does not work in practice.
In the meantime, I call on the government to implement an information program that gives families the opportunity to talk with the committee should they, on their own initiative, wish to do so. This could be done through flyers placed in doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, childcare centres, community centres, libraries and the like. Information could even be given to prospective parents in parenting classes and such like.
The bottom line is that the committee should not be knocking on the doors of families, but families should know about the committee’s work and be given the option—should they choose on their own initiative—to provide information to the committee. I note that another amendment, which will be considered later, whilst not perfect, at least adds further strength to the intent of this amendment.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women) (10.11): The ACT government believes that the government amendment is more appropriate. While every death of a child is regrettable and lessons can be learnt from each individual death, there are mechanisms for review in place to achieve this outcome at an individual level. Comments about individual deaths are not appropriate cause or circumstances. Systemic issues and trends are what the committee can contribute to new learning.
What is required is a mechanism that can review and analyse information concerning trends and patterns of all deaths of children and young people and make recommendations to achieve systemic change. It is difficult, when considering a single circumstance or small numbers, to make recommendations for systemic change. The validity of the outcomes of the analysis and recommendations made by the child death review committee must not be compromised.
In relation to proposed new section 727D put forward by Ms Hunter, on the appointment of committee members and the number of members, on the new Greens’ agreement the government supports the revised amendment proposed by Ms Hunter for the number and make-up of the committee and the details of remuneration.
Amendment agreed to.
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