Page 811 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
My motion today is calling on the government to broaden the scope of Mr Glanfield’s review. For example, I would like to see a call for public submissions. I have been contacted by some families who have given me information about cases, and they would like to be able to share their stories and provide information that might stop other children going through what their child or family member has gone through. Broadening the scope and calling for public submissions into Mr Glanfield’s review I think would be a very useful thing. People feel better for being able to tell their stories when they feel they are able to help someone else into the future, even though it may be too late for their family members. It gives those concerned members of the public the ability to voice their concerns and have them investigated, presumably by Mr Glanfield, in a transparent and accountable fashion.
As another example of how we need to share information more broadly, in April last year there was the extraordinary meeting of the Domestic Violence Prevention Council. Following that meeting the Domestic Violence Prevention Council provided a report to the Attorney-General. That report also contained some recommendations about information sharing, such as recommendation 7, which states:
That the ACT government considers allowing information sharing between agencies (Government and non-Government) within integrated responses, with appropriate safeguards, particularly where a risk assessment indicates it is important for the purpose of protecting the safety of the victim and their immediate family.
So we have the committee report tabled by Mr Hargreaves back in 2003 and then most recently the recommendations from the Domestic Violence Prevention Council. We all recognise that need. My question is: what is actually taking place to facilitate information sharing and to give effect to those recommendations? If we can have better information between care and protection and other ACT government directorates and agencies as well as interstate and other jurisdictions that is only going to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.
We have the recommendations from the Domestic Violence Prevention Council from nearly a year ago. I would like to know what has been done to give effect to those recommendations in the meantime. Will the government immediately implement any or all possible improvements in information sharing that have arisen from the DV prevention council extraordinary meeting? They must have been working on them for almost a year now, so there must be something that we can put in place. I am not trying to pre-empt the results of the review by Mr Glanfield, but there must be things we can already put in place without waiting for the outcomes of that report, which I expect will also provide some really useful recommendations.
We all want to ensure that the best interests of our most vulnerable children and young people remain the paramount consideration. So my motion today is calling on the government to broaden slightly the scope of Mr Glanfield’s inquiry to give effect to the ability for public submissions to the inquiry and enable people to have their stories heard and hopefully investigated and used in a positive fashion for the future. We need to ensure better information sharing between ACT government and other
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video