Page 3558 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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This motion also raises the issue of who is being consulted as part of this review. As noted, the public have been invited to make submissions on the discussion paper released earlier this year. In addition the minister stated on 16 May that she had “written to a wide range of stakeholders within the child protection and legal systems and to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to invite their participation in face-to-face consultations”. The opposition certainly endorses such face-to-face engagement with stakeholders, but there is one group of stakeholders not mentioned in the minister’s list of invitees, that is, children and young people themselves.
This motion calls on the minister, as part of updating the Assembly, to inform us how the voices of children and young people are being included in the consultation process. This would seem to be an obvious inclusion, but I would like a clear assurance that it is part of the process. Earlier this year the CREATE Foundation, which is the nation’s peak body representing those in care and protection, released a comprehensive survey subtitled Children and young people’s views after five years of national standards. This survey, which was endorsed by academic experts, raises concerns about how well children are being listened to in this territory’s out of home care system.
For example, the ACT has by far the nation’s highest rate of children and young people in care who report being removed from a placement against their wishes. At the same time we have the lowest rate of such young people who report being consulted regarding these removals. On a more specific measure, the ACT tied with the Northern Territory for the fewest young people who agree that they are listened to within the system broadly. We are second-last when it comes to the number of young people who report participation in formal meetings that involve them. And amongst young people who have been invited to attend such meetings, fewer Canberra children said that they were actually listened to, compared to children across the nation.
In fact, one of the clearest messages found in the CREATE Foundation’s survey is that children and young people in this territory simply do not trust the Barr government to listen to them or let them have a real voice in decisions that affect them. This finding stands in stark contrast to the promise in this government’s out of home care strategy, which is to “embed a culture of listening to the voices of children and young people”. Aware of their own data, the CREATE Foundation chose to emphasise this point in their submission to the ongoing review. CREATE said:
CREATE further advises that it is vital that if the working group must determine which decisions could benefit from external review, children and young people should be consulted as to their opinions on which issues are important to them.
Perhaps those overseeing the review process have already developed plans to access the vital voice of children and young people and this consultation has happened or is happening. I certainly hope so. This is the hope of the opposition. But in light of what we know about what children in Canberra are saying about their experiences more generally, it seems wise to ask the government to remind the independent expert who is undertaking the consultation process that the voices of children and young people must be heard.
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