Bills

Children and Young People (Safety and Support) Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (15:42): I rise to speak on the Children and Young People (Safety and Support) Bill 2024, which is a transformative piece of legislative reform in our government's journey to reform and improve the child protection and family support system.

As a parent myself—and probably just like any other member of society, frankly—we are all devastated when we hear of the neglect or harm inflicted on a child by people who are supposed to provide a loving and safe environment for that child to grow and thrive. However, we know that neglectful, and indeed harmful, parenting has been part of society probably throughout human history.

As a government in the modern day, we must do all we can to alleviate the likelihood of this occurring or, when it does, to provide the most appropriate intervention possible. This bill has been designed to create a legislative foundation and framework for profound and significant change, change that ensures that the child protection system has, at its core, a focus on the safety and support of the child while, of course, retaining that which is working well.

It grieves us all that these measures remain such an important part of the services that a modern government must provide but, like others in this place, when I talk about abuse and neglect I speak from personal experience when I say that the harm and the effects of it never leave you. In many respects you never recover from it, so it is best that we all do everything we can to prevent it ever happening and, if it does, that we do all we can to support families to do better, to parent better, to place the wellbeing of the child at the forefront of all they do.

This bill follows a review of the current act in which nearly 1,000 people engaged via public forums in both metropolitan and regional locations, online surveys, written submissions and targeted discussions to generously share their expertise, wisdom and insights into what was working and what could be improved.

The review also considered relevant findings from several external reviews and in response to the review stakeholders suggested and supported a range of reforms to deliver better outcomes for children, young people, families and carers, with a particular focus on improving child protection responses and support for Aboriginal children and young people, families and communities.

What is most important about this bill, I think, is the idea that it creates a responsive, cohesive and practical child protection and family support framework. Amongst other changes, the bill recognises a commitment to privileging the voices of children and young people by introducing a new division requiring reasonable steps to be taken to ensure their voices are heard in prescribed decisions which affect them, including family group conferencing, placement decisions, contact decisions and reviews. This is so important because we have to listen to and believe children when they talk about themselves and their wellbeing. They know when they are doing well and they know when the people around them actually care and have their interests at heart.

I want to thank Minister Hildyard for her incredible dedication to the children of our state, to her portfolio and to the children she is responsible for as minister. I do not think there could be a warmer, more loving and genuine person to hold this portfolio. I know she places the utmost importance in placing children at the centre of her work in this area.

I also want to thank all the carers in our state who take a child in—and, of course, our own member for Elder is one such carer—who take on the care of a child who is not their birth child but you would never know because they love the child in their care like they are their own. I want to acknowledge the incredible contributions of all who contributed to the review and to the department for their dedication and hard work to ensure we have the best child protection system we can possibly have.

This bill is an example of the Malinauskas Labor government's dedication to the wellbeing of all children in all facets of their life. It is my pleasure to give my voice and my support to this bill.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (15:46): I rise today in support of the Children and Young People (Safety and Support) Bill 2024, which seeks to repeal and replace the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017. The Children and Young People (Safety) Act commenced in 2018 to provide a new legislative framework for the child protection system in South Australia, following the child protection system's royal commission.

In 2022, our Minister for Child Protection initiated a review of the act to be undertaken by a team within the Department for Child Protection with the support of an independent Aboriginal facilitator and non-Aboriginal facilitator. The review sought feedback from children, young people and family members with experience of the child protection system, foster and kinship carers, people who work within and interact with the child protection system, non-government and government partners, the legal profession and peak bodies.

The review also specifically undertook targeted consultation with Aboriginal people, including community members, leaders and representatives from Aboriginal organisations. Nearly 1,000 people engaged in this review, through public forums in metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia, online surveys, written submissions or targeted consultation.

We are all really, really grateful for the contributions, experiences and honest feedback that everyone who participated in this review took the time to share. You would not have participated if you did not care. While I know there are many different experiences and views of how we can do this best, I think this bill before us today shows that there are a number of things that a vast majority of us can agree on. The bill before us today would not be possible without the expertise and passion of everyone who took part, who want to develop a better system of care for children and young people, their families and their carers.

The review found community consensus that support needed to be reflected in any new legislative framework to reinforce the importance of keeping families safely together. The reforms included throughout this bill acknowledge this consensus from its very title, with the inclusion of the words 'and Support'.

The new legislative framework provided for with this bill responds directly to five key messages that came from the review of the previous act, including principles for Aboriginal children, young people and families, getting the settings right, children at the centre, and supporting our partners.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle was developed in recognition of the devastating effects of forced separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, communities and culture, and to ensure that the atrocities of the stolen generation are never ever repeated. The principle consists of five interrelated elements: placement, connection, prevention, partnership and participation.

Through the review of the existing Children and Young People (Safety) Act, a majority of stakeholders were overwhelmingly supportive of embedding this principle and all five elements. In response, this bill fully articulates and embeds the principle as the key decision-making framework for Aboriginal children, applying the standard of active efforts within an embedded accountability mechanism.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I am sure you are wondering: what does 'active efforts' mean? Active efforts require that steps taken must be timely, practicable, thorough and purposeful. This reform also introduces identification as the precursor to applying the principle and requires active efforts from the earliest point of contact to identify Aboriginal children and young people, to connect them with culture, country, and kin, and for that connection to be maintained.

It is imperative that such a framework recognises and respects, but also supports, the self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by embedding the principle of family-led decision-making, another amendment that this bill introduces in response to the review. Further amendments include enabling the progressive delegation of legislative authority to recognise Aboriginal entities, requiring the chief executive to offer family group conferencing to Aboriginal families and providing a new scheme for the involvement of respected persons in court proceedings to support Aboriginal children and young people.

The second key message heard from the review of existing legislation was getting the settings right in a new legislative framework. The review enjoyed overwhelming support for a public health approach to child protection as a general principle, with a range of views on how to include this in legislation. New provisions included in this bill support a public health approach to child protection, including requiring the development of a state strategy for children and young people, recognising the role of agencies in providing service responses that address child abuse and neglect, and introducing a power to direct chief executives of health, education and human services to meet to enable an interagency support response.

Furthermore, this bill seeks to recognise the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our Minister for Child Protection and this state government is committed to amplifying voices of children and young people. The review agreed with overwhelming support for child-focused legislation, privileging those voices in decision-making. This bill puts children at the centre of a new legislative framework by introducing a new division requiring reasonable steps be taken to ensure their voices are heard in prescribed decisions which affect them.

The voices of children and young people will be elevated in family group conferencing, case planning, placement and contact decisions, annual reviews, leaving care plans, and internal reviews. This bill also requires the provision of a copy of the charter of rights to children. I am so proud to be part of a government that is putting the voices of children and young people at the centre of this work.

It should be the children who are talking about what contact actually works best for them, what they actually want, and what they feel comfortable with, and also engaging them in their annual reviews and everything, because all of us are working really, really hard to support young people but we actually need to be making sure we are listening to them as well.

Further requirements introduced in this bill include considering the case plan as part of a child's annual review, a panel of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to include at least one member with social work and/or child protection experience, and one member to be Aboriginal where the matter relates to an Aboriginal child, and a contact arrangements review panel to have regard to submissions made by the child.

This reform also specifies matters to be considered in a leaving care plan, including access to personal information, and strengthens provisions to prevent the publication of material that identifies the child as being under guardianship.

The final key message found in the review was supporting our partners, with many stakeholders supporting the statement of commitment to foster and kinship carers being embedded in the legislation with greater recognition of the invaluable role carers play. This bill enshrines that statement and provides, as advocated for, a new statement of commitment to parents and families. It also seeks to introduce a specific pathway for assessing reports of harm to children in care and new provisions for the Contact Arrangements Review Panel, such as new timeframes and independence of the Presiding Member.

Additional reform includes assurance that carers are offered the opportunity to attend the annual review of the child in their care, and explicitly enables payments to carers to support eligible care leavers up to 25 years old. I have done this a couple of times in this chamber, but I would like to take this opportunity to again do another call out for kinship and foster carers. There are so many children in our state who need support.

While I am very proud that our government is doing so much in this space, I do think we also have a role as members of our communities to contribute. Whether that be through a formal way of becoming a foster carer—and that might mean that you have every Sunday free and you can provide respite every Sunday to a child, or you might be up for becoming a full-time foster carer—there are so many different ways that you can support the children in our world, and in our communities and in our state, and I would really like people to seriously take a moment to consider becoming a foster carer.

It takes time, and it might be that you can start the process and you get halfway through and decide that it actually is not the right thing for you, but I think what most people would find is you get halfway through the process and become more and more desperate to make a difference. As I have said before in this chamber, becoming a foster carer is the best thing I have ever done in my life. I love being the member for Elder but being a foster carer is the absolute best. It is a privilege. It does not really feel like I make a difference anymore, because it is just life, but I cannot recommend becoming a foster carer enough—so please do. I have sent everyone the link.

In closing, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to contribute to the review of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act, and the consultation on the draft to the bill before us today. Your experience, expertise and guidance has played a crucial role in bringing this new legislative framework before the parliament. I would also like to thank my friend, the Minister for Child Protection. You know just how complex this area is. There are a lot of competing interests and needs, and there can be a lot of hurt and a lot of pain. But there can also be a lot of hope and repair, and, minister, I really appreciate that you take this role so seriously and that you are so determined to make a difference—so, thank you. I also thank her excellent team and the Department for Child Protection.

There should not be the need for thousands of people in our state to be employed to do this work but there is. The people who choose to work in child protection do not do it for super-high salaries or perks; they do it because they want to make a difference, and I want all the staff at the Department for Child Protection to know that you are making a difference—so, thank you; I thank each and every one of you. Thank you to everyone for your commitment to improving the child protection and family support system with a focus on safety and support, and I really look forward to the passing of this bill.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:58): I do rise to close this second reading debate, and I have quite a few reflections on the really lovely contributions of the member for Dunstan and the member for Elder, and the important contribution from the member for Heysen. Given the time, I will leave that until we go to the next stage of this debate. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.