Children and Young People (Safety) (Child and Young Person's Visitor) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. S.L. GAME (17:25): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. S.L. GAME (17:26): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek to introduce an amendment bill that enshrines proper resourcing for the important role of the Child and Young Person's Visitor in residential care. It is a small change but makes an impactful difference to the visitor, their staff and the children and young people they visit in over 200 residential care facilities across South Australia. The wording is consistent with other similar roles represented in the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017, that is:

The Minister must provide the Child and Young Person's Visitor with the staff and other resources that the Visitor reasonably needs for exercising the Visitor's functions.

Children in residential care are amongst the most vulnerable in the state. They come from complex and difficult backgrounds. They have repeated occurrences of trauma in their young lives. They do not have a home they can rely on. They do not have adults within their sphere whom they can trust. They are living amongst other young people with traumatic and often violent and abusive histories. These children and young people are more at risk of physical, sexual and emotional abuse than just about everyone else in their demographic.

Residential care should be a place that allows children to reset, feel safe and get on with the business of healing and learning, but we know about what happens between children. Abuse from carers does happen. Self-harm is rife. The risk of suicide is high. These children more often than not have not learned how to truly trust anyone, and many of them believe deeply that they do not matter—and why would they when there is currently no legal obligation for the government to resource the people who would call to check on them, to make sure they are safe and listened to?

Independent reviews concluded that four visitations per residential facility per year is the very minimum required to give any kind of due diligence of identifying abuse and neglect. An increase on this will assist in creating relationships. This change will help to ensure the team are able to visit and build trust with those most vulnerable in our state, giving them an avenue of advocacy and representation. To me, this is a small piece of legislation that encapsulates some of the most important work we are privileged to be a part of, and I commend this amendment bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.