Page 1812 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.51): I thank Ms Orr for bringing forward this motion. The Greens were contemplating doing something very similar. As Ms Orr alluded to, in the last sitting period—or was it the period before—we had substantial confusion and difference of interpretation about both the standing orders and the conventions and how the work of committees interacts with statements that individual members may make, be they members of the committee or not, and matters that come before the Assembly as a whole. This is clearly an area where we do not have a shared understanding about what the situation should be. The purpose of Ms Orr’s motion is to get that shared understanding. I very much commend her motion to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Health, Ageing and Community Services—Standing Committee
Proposed reference
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (11.52): I seek leave to amend my motion in the terms that it was circulated.
Leave granted.
MRS KIKKERT: I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) the 2004 Vardon report raised concerns from community members that the ACT’s care and protection system lacked “effective external scrutiny” to remedy “unlawful or incorrect administrative actions or decisions”, and also mentioned the need for “transparency and accountability in decision making”;
(b) the 2016 Glanfield inquiry recommended, as one of four key outcomes, the “improved quality of, and transparency in … decision making and practices” in the ACT’s care and protection system;
(c) in its 2016 Response to Family Violence, the ACT Government stated that:
(i) “increased transparency and the building of trust is particularly necessary in child protection cases”;
(ii) the Territory’s care and protection system “must adopt a culture of transparency”; and
(iii) “the ACT Government accepts that proper accountability enhances community confidence in public administration, especially in complex areas such as statutory child protection services”; and
(d) the ACT Government recently released a discussion paper on options for the review of child protection decisions in the ACT for public consultation;
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