Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for her question. I am sure every single member of this House joins with me in horror at the reports that are coming out from various parts of Australia demonstrating terrible stories of child neglect and abuse. To be confronted with the horror of malnutrition and starvation of children I think is shaking every one of us to our foundations. I think we would all agree that, understandably, Australians want to know just how this can continue to be happening and also want to know what each and every one of us at this level of government and in the states and territories are going to do about it.

As I am sure everybody here understands, these cases are now subject to police investigations, so of course I cannot comment on any of the individual cases. What I can say—and I am sure once again it is something that we all feel very strongly about—is that child abuse is a crime. It is a crime that must see the people who are perpetrating it punished. As a nation, we not only need to see the people perpetrating it punished; we also need to do a much better job of protecting our children from abuse and neglect. As we all know, including those of us who are parents or aunties or uncles, we want each and every one of our children to grow up in a safe, happy and healthy environment.

It is the case that the levels of child abuse are at an alarming high. Just last year there were around 60,000 cases across Australia where authorities found that a child was likely to be harmed, abused or neglected. What I think shocks us all is that these rates have doubled over the last decade. Of course, governments cannot replace the job that responsible parents have to do. But one of the things that is our responsibility is stepping in where there is evidence of neglect or abuse.

One of the things that has come out from the reports over the last few days is the very clear need to have much better sharing of child protection information both within and across jurisdictions. We certainly intend for this to be a very important aspect of the new national child protection framework as a way in which the Australian government can provide leadership on the critical issue of child protection.

In addition to the vital role of information sharing, the framework will include better prevention, better integration of services, improving responses for children in care and children coming out of care, improving responses for Indigenous children and, most critically, attracting and retaining the right workforce so that we can have effective child protection systems across the country.

Under the new national child protection framework, the Australian government is also giving state and territory child welfare authorities the power to advise Centrelink to quarantine various welfare payments to make sure that that money is being spent in the interests of children. We have committed some additional funding in the recent budget to this welfare reform agenda to make sure that our children are protected and that they are going to school.

These are very challenging issues that confront every single one of us here today, and I think everybody here also knows that there are no simple solutions to these very complex issues. As I said before, parents will always have the primary responsibility for caring for and protecting their children, but state, territory and national governments have a responsibility to step in where children are at risk of neglect or abuse. We all have to do more to make sure that the cases we have seen in recent days stop falling through the cracks that exist in the system. I am sure that together we can make some improvements for the children who have been so badly treated in our community.

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