Page 469 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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Detail stage
Clauses 1 to 7, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Proposed new clauses 7A to 7I.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (10.36): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name on the yellow sheet, which inserts new clauses 7A to 7I [see schedule 1 at page 549].
I have a number of amendments to insert some of the provisions of my bill into the government bill. The substance of the amendments does not necessarily line up neatly with the amendment numbers they are being moved in, but I will do my best to explain this and to identify what they are doing as I speak to each one.
First, amendment No 1 inserts a new section 5(1)(i)(a). This amendment creates a charter of rights for children and young people in out-of-home care. The charter is to include young people and young adults in, or previously in, out-of-home care to ensure that the charter provides for the rights of young people leaving care until the age of 25 years.
The bill creates an obligation on the part of the territory and out-of-home carers to uphold the rights conferred by the charter and creates an obligation on the director-general to promote compliance by out-of-home carers.
I have previously gone through the nature of those rights and obligations, but I would also make the point that other jurisdictions have seen fit to legislate to protect these rights and ensure that the standards are met. Young people in Queensland and Western Australia have these rights protected in legislation. So it is very difficult to understand why it would be appropriate to provide a lesser standard of care for Canberrans.
The decision not to include the charter of rights reflects badly on the government. Children do not choose to be placed into these situations. It is not their fault, nor do they have any control over it. As a community, we should be able to tell them what we are going to provide to them and how it will be provided to them—and, most importantly, live up to our word.
We are dealing with a big system where people can get lost. It is a great shame that the government is not willing to create a set of protections for these children and young people and young adults to ensure that they are not lost in the system and that there are mandatory minimum standards. The government has produced a series of posters, postcards and so forth which display the charter of rights for children and young people in out-of-home care. These have been distributed right around the community. They clearly state that young people in out-of-home care have these rights.
Yet today we see a government clearly backing away from this commitment. The government claims to have a commitment to openness, transparency and
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