Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Freemantle for her question on something that she has passionately advocated for throughout her professional career and for which she was most recently able to make a change to the Labor Party platform—something that we are now acting on in this budget.

As the member mentioned, it is something that I also have a strong and long personal attachment to from my position as the shadow minister for children and youth many years ago. More than 10 years ago, in fact, we first announced a policy proposing a National Children's Commissioner, and it gives me great pleasure that, in the budget, we have now dedicated finances to be able to make this a reality. It is an unusual situation to have an extra, separate budget line item rather than simply an increase to the Human Rights Commission's budget. That is because we are conscious of the issues that the member has raised: to make sure that we have sufficient resources and dedicated resources. I know the commission is very excited about this additional formal responsibility being added to its remit.

We have proposed the legislation that will be able to establish this, and though we have not yet had an indication we hope that we will have an indication of support from the opposition. We will make it clear that a National Children's Commissioner has certain responsibilities and does not have others. Those certain responsibilities are to make sure that there is a particular focus on those who, as the member for Fremantle has mentioned, are vulnerable and disadvantaged. Many, many children in Australia have wonderful lives. When you look around the world, Australia is one of the best countries for a child to be born in; however, there are children in Australia who do not get the benefits of that. This commissioner will have particular responsibilities to make sure that those disadvantaged groups in particular are focused on.

I also flag that, unlike other proposals that have been floating around—for example, the proposal by the Greens party—our proposal is that the commissioner will not have a complaint-handling role dealing with individual children, nor will the commissioner take on child protection matters or family law matters for individuals, nor act as a legal guardian. It is important to emphasise that there are other bodies that fulfil those roles. We want this to be an opportunity to advocate for systematic reforms and improvements for children across disadvantaged groups. It is very important that we match the responsibilities to the resources available. An undertaking which required the National Children's Commissioner take on those additional roles would, of course, need to be resourced well above the current proposal, and would duplicate many of the responsibilities for children that lie with other agencies.

I am very excited that this is in the budget. I think it is an important step forward for children. I look forward to having an indication—hopefully sometime soon—from the opposition that is something that they will support. There will, of course, be a debate in the parliament when the legislation is introduced and, after that, an opportunity for us to recruit and employ the first ever National Children's Commissioner.

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