Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak in support of the member for Fremantle’s motion on the rights of children. As a former principal and a teacher at the time, I welcomed the Hawke government’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in December 1990. In fact, I remember teaching a unit of work on the topic to some very interested children. And I welcome the member for Fremantle’s efforts to protect and foster the rights of children.

Since the convention was ratified we have made significant progress, both in Australia and internationally, in our efforts to protect the rights of children. Ten thousand fewer children now die each day than they did when the convention was ratified. It does not sound many but when you take into account 20 years of population growth it is pleasing.

This reduction in the number of children dying each day has in part been achieved through the aid program of Australian governments and the development programs of Australian aid organisations. This is an achievement of which all Australians should be proud, and one which we hope to expand upon. Internationally, over eight million children continue to die each year. That is a significant figure. It is equivalent to the death of the entire population of Australia every three years. A preventable disease like malaria, for example, kills a child every 30 seconds and greatly contributes to anaemia among children, stunting their growth and hindering their development.

At the millennium summit in 2000 the Australian government pledged, among other things, to work in cooperation with other developed nations to halt and to begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases through the provision of insecticide treated bed nets and antimalarial drugs. We also promised to reduce infant mortality rates by two-thirds and to ensure that children everywhere were able to access primary schooling. That is why we are contributing $1.6 billion over the next five years as part of the United Nations Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, to reduce complications during childbirth and to improve the health of children under the age of five.

We are also investing in education initiatives in Asia and the Pacific in the order of $744 million in the 2010-11 financial year to bring our official development assistance spending to $4.3 billion in 2010-11, increasing to between $8 billion and $9 billion per annum by 2015.

In addition to the work of the non-government organisations mentioned in the motion, I would also like to applaud the work of PLAN, whose child-centred community development programs foster the rights of children, improve access to education and reduce child poverty. The Coalition for Adolescent Girls and Girl Effect, likewise, should be commended for their innovative work directed towards young women as the means through which to change people’s lives, their communities and nations. In the words of Girl Effect:

If we can release girls living in poverty, they will do the rest.

Girl Effect in particular has a very innovative approach. It uses a lot of social media to inspire other young people to assist and to take action.

In Australia there remain significant issues of child abuse, neglect and youth homelessness. The most recent report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicates that in Australia during 2008-09 there were 339,454 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect made to state and territory authorities concerning 207,462 children. Of the 162,385 reports that were investigated, 54,621 were substantiated, of which over 34,000 were in my home state of New South Wales.

Particularly concerning is the disadvantage experienced by Indigenous children. An Aboriginal child is 7½ times more likely to be abused than a non-Indigenous child, and is more than nine times as likely to be placed in care. This is not acceptable and we do need to close that gap and ensure that Aboriginal children receive the same opportunities and caring and loving environments that many other children receive.

I would like to dwell on the issue of the national commissioner for children. I also agree that we should appoint a national commissioner for children as the Australian Human Rights Commission has recommended. I heard the member for Pearce say that that would have to be very strictly defined. I think it would be an important voice for children and for fostering the protection and promotion of children’s rights in Australia.

In the short time that I have spoken, 75 children will have died somewhere in the world from preventable causes. The answer, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, is to honour our commitments even when the global economic environment is harsh, because for the poorest of the poor it is even harder. Domestically, as a government, we must be proactive in our policy making and foster a rights based culture for all Australians, particularly our children, who are at particular disadvantage. I therefore commend the motion.

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