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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-17 Daily Xml
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Is the government committed to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle and, if so, what action will the government take to ensure its effective application? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: Commissioner April Lawrie's preliminary report observes at page 7, and I quote:

The ATSI CPP aims to enable systemic change to address the needs of Aboriginal children and families which are not being met within the current legislative and policy frameworks.

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) (14:56): Thank you to the member for the question. It is a very important question that I am very happy to answer. Can I first of all say thank you to Commissioner Lawrie and to her team for their extensive work and extensive engagement with community members over the past almost a year, and can I say thank you to her for her preliminary report that will, of course, be tabled in the parliament in due course and in the timeliness that is required as per the legislation, as per the report.

Can I say, just to give a little bit of background on our commitment on this side of the house to ensuring that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle is advanced in every way that it can be, that during the course of the last parliament I moved amendments to legislation that was proposed by the then minister to strengthen the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, but, sadly, those amendments were not supported by the then government, the then minister. That was a great pity because that was an opportunity to strengthen the principle's application, and I was very sad for community members when that was not supported.

What I can say also is that, as well as providing her contribution through the report, Commissioner Lawrie and her team also contributed to the comprehensive review that has been conducted of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act, a review that was tabled in this house some months ago. In her contribution to the review several suggestions were made about how we can strengthen, very importantly, the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. So we have carefully considered that feedback. It is feedback that aligns with her comments around the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle—the comments that she has now made in her preliminary report.

I can absolutely assure the member, as I think I also assured him in a briefing that I gave him, that that is an issue that we are absolutely considering as we go through the process of drafting the Children and Young People (Safety) Act provisions. I look forward to the moment when we do introduce legislation into the house and have further debate about how we can work to strengthen the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

What I will also say is that, very importantly, alongside the work in the legislative space, we have also recently announced an investment of $3.2 million into the establishment of a peak body for Aboriginal children and young people. The establishment of that peak body will play an incredibly important role in providing advice to us, guiding us, to make sure that we fulsomely apply that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

Alongside that, we also have invested $13.4 million into additional family group conferencing, with particular focus on offering family group conferences to Aboriginal families. That, alongside the discussions in the legislative sense about the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, will be incredibly important as we progress the intent of that very important principle.

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