Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all senators for their contributions on this motion. I would like to broadly concur with the statement by the NAPCAN foundation president, Teresa Scott, that child abuse and neglect is Australia’s greatest social problem, and it is the responsibility of all Australians to do everything they can to prevent it. That must include government and political parties, of course, but I should emphasise that it is a responsibility for all Australians. It is not something that government can somehow fix without the community coming along with it and showing greater concern for the issue. However, I slightly disagree with Teresa Scott in that I think the continuing gross inequality between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians is our greatest social problem, and it is actually no coincidence that some of the ways that manifests itself are also through child abuse and neglect.

I acknowledge the contributions and the generosity of the contributions from everybody, but, frankly, I am not convinced that this is actually being given the priority it deserves from the federal government. That is not a criticism of them specifically. It is not being given the priority it deserves by state governments and it has not been given the priority it deserves by previous federal governments either.

I also acknowledge the impossible role of welfare workers in the field in this area. They make mistakes from time to time and occasionally they are very grievous mistakes, and they should be continually monitored. But, in many cases, they carry the can for society’s failures, and for decades they have been under-resourced by governments. They are in the impossible position of deciding whether to remove a child from a family situation—and having to deal with all of the grief and upheaval that goes with that—or whether to leave the child in a situation where they may be at risk, and having to face all of the criticism if that pans out badly. As well, they have the knowledge that removing them and putting them somewhere else in care is not necessarily always terribly safe for the child either. We need to acknowledge the work of many people at the community level who are trying to navigate through this.

I support the call of Joe Tucci for a national children’s commissioner. I think that is absolutely essential. That is a recommendation of the Senate committee report that has not been taken up by this federal government. I think it is absolutely crucial that it is taken up, and the Australian Childhood Foundation has pushed for that for a long period of time. Why can’t we have a parliamentary secretary with responsibility for this? We have a parliamentary secretary with responsibility for water. Even though we all know that it is a state issue, it has been seen as an issue of national priority. I think the same sort of thing can be done with this issue, where we actually hold ourselves accountable as a nation and report to cabinet. It does not make it a national priority by just funding some programs now and then. You have consistent follow through, time after time, with the person who has that core responsibility. It is only when the parliament and all political parties agree to take the responsibility that you actually get some action.

Question agreed to.