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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-27 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. How is the government acknowledging and celebrating the contributions of children and young people, carers and volunteers, staff and organisations from across the child protection sector?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:55): Thank you very much to the member for both this question and her commitment to the wellbeing of children and young people, including young children and young people with a care experience or those children and young people who are at risk.

September marks both Child Protection Week and Foster and Kinship Care Week, occasions that give our whole community a really important opportunity to recognise and to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of people and organisations across the sector and in our community who work and volunteer tirelessly and with such passion each and every day to support children and young people, and to enable them to physically, mentally and emotionally thrive.

I was honoured to be part of the celebrations at the recent SA Child Protection Awards, and I was very pleased to extend a personal invitation to the shadow minister to also attend those awards. I am sure that he would agree that the people who were celebrated there were utterly inspiring and their dedication was just extraordinary.

Almost 300 nominations for these awards were received from individuals and communities throughout South Australia. This represented a 60 per cent increase on last year's awards, with 36 individual or group finalists across the 11 award categories. All award nominees and recipients demonstrated their outstanding commitment and were exemplars of the things that people do to care for, to love and to support children and young people and to enable them to thrive.

It was lovely to see recognised some of these outstanding people, like young kinship carers Corey and Robert, who care for a number of their siblings, and 30-year volunteering veteran, Lyn, who was profiled in a recent article in The Advertiser by Jess Adamson. They represent so many others like them who share a common purpose and passion for doing what they can to ensure that children are safe and supported.

As I entered the awards, I was just overjoyed to hear the Strong in Culture, Strong in Voice choir of children and young people singing. Their voices were extraordinary, but their courage in getting up and singing at these awards was just absolutely beautiful. The theme of this year's Child Protection Week was 'Every child, in every community, needs a fair go'. It reminds us of the importance of working together to achieve better outcomes for children and young people.

We have also recently marked Foster and Kinship Carer Week. Along with partner agencies, a range of thank-you events were held to recognise and celebrate carers for their important work. I was absolutely delighted to attend several of these events, including in southern and western Adelaide and in Port Pirie and Port Augusta.

I want to mention a couple I met at the Port Augusta recognition ceremony, Tony and Wendy, who have been fostering for 36 years. They have opened their hearts, their homes and their lives to an extraordinary number of young people. One of the things that was lovely was that I also met their daughter that day, and she said to me that she had been so inspired by what her parents had done and her experiences with those children they fostered that she and her husband are now also foster carers. I say thank you to them and all the extraordinary carers in our community.

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