Page 471 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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significant items. They could be sporting trophies, educational certificates, merit awards, school reports, photographs, birthday cards, letters and so forth.
As I said, many kinship and foster carers who have met with me have told me that they already have a box in which they keep these important items for young people. Parents do this for their children in the community. I think it is quite a reasonable community expectation that the territory should collect and store these items for those few young people and young adults who do not have anyone else to do this for them.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.42): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name on the pink paper, which seeks to amend Ms Hunter’s amendment No 1 by omitting proposed new clause 7A [see schedule 2 at page 553].
The Canberra Liberals will be supporting Ms Hunter’s amendments except relating to clause 7A and, later on in the piece, clause 12B. I will address both of those now. These clauses seek to enshrine in legislation a charter of rights for children and young people. This goes to the comments I made in the in-principle stage that it is better to keep legislation to expressions of policy rather than to prescriptions of process.
I am aware that the government has already published the charter of rights for children and young people, and this is a positive. However, as I noted in my in-principle speech, this publication is an output; it is not in itself an outcome. The output needs to be translated to outcomes of direct benefit to our children and young people by positive delivery on the promises made in this charter.
In my in-principle speech I called on the government to deliver these outcomes. I foreshadow that I will be watching this minister and this government like a hawk to ensure that these outcomes are delivered. The challenge now sits with the government to demonstrate that it is capable of turning outputs into outcomes without having to be guided or directed by prescriptive legislation.
I will now comment briefly on the Greens’ other amendments, which the Canberra Liberals will be supporting. These amendments fall into two subject areas. The first goes to the central theme of this bill. It establishes the principle for the development, consultation and review of plans to transition young people and young adults from the care and protection system to independence in adulthood. It also establishes the kind of assistance that the government will provide to our young people and young adults, including financial assistance. Importantly, it should be noted that these plans and this support will be available to young people beyond the age of 18—in fact, until they turn 25.
Recent studies show that children today stay at home with their parents for much longer—indeed, into their mid-20s, if they are lucky. This, of course, is partly because of the increasing cost of living, the continuing fall in housing affordability and because parents want to try and give their kids a bit of a leg-up into their adult life. It is also often the case that parents will extend other assistance, including financial assistance, to their children as they struggle to make ends meet in these days of
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