Page 1939 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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both their birth parents and adoptive parents and is consistent with the best interests of the child.
I note that the government is today responding to the final report from Our Booris, Our Way, and that many of the recommendations in that report are well underway. This includes the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander placement principle, access to family group conferencing, supports for kinship carers, and improving the development and monitoring of cultural plans, amongst other things. This signifies a range of improvements to the child and youth protection system over the life of this Assembly and for which the minister, in partnership with community members and organisations, can take credit.
The care and protection system is very complex. It necessarily touches on the most important aspects of people’s lives. No child protection system anywhere is perfect, and we all know that. What is important is that we keep improving it, as we learn more about how to improve it. That is why I will close today by reiterating that the Greens believe in the need for an external merits review of care and protection decisions, many of which—probably virtually all—are life altering, and a lot of them are permanent. This will contribute to further strengthening approaches as we evolve, and we look forward to that becoming a reality in the next Assembly.
I support the bill and look forward to the amendment which I believe will be put forward by the Canberra Liberals.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (11.34): I sincerely thank the minister for the work that she, her staff and all others involved have put into preparing this important amendment bill, including those who have shared their life experiences and provided their feedback throughout the consultation process. The Canberra Liberals will be supporting this bill today.
The changes proposed have their origin in a motion moved by my colleague Ms Lawder back in August 2016—four years ago. Her successful motion resulted in the creation of the Domestic Adoptions Taskforce, which reported to this Assembly in February 2017. The taskforce found that there were indeed challenges to the timeliness of the domestic adoption process in the ACT and sought to identify solutions—what should be done to address these challenges. The government committed to implementing all of the recommendations contained in the taskforce’s final report, including to develop specialist adoption staff to improve delivery of service.
Unfortunately, it has taken a while for some of these improvements to be implemented, and as recently as the 2018-19 budget the government admitted that, because of insufficient staffing, it might have reached only 40 per cent of its targeted number of permanent placements. This is unacceptable in light of the taskforce’s findings. Another recommendation from the taskforce was to explore possible legislative amendments to dispensation of consent provisions; to align ACT government obligations and reform priorities with provisions in other jurisdictions; and to better respond to the complexity of out of home care circumstances. This recommendation came with a strong suggestion for robust consultation in order to
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