Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right. He is doing a great job. There have been recent incidents in the media that I am sure many of you have read. You only need to open up a Sunday newspaper to see how many incidents are happening against our children. The recent spate of events, including neglect in the Blue Mountains where a number of children were left for two or three weeks by their parents, have shocked me. Going further, the stories of abused children photographed and displayed on the internet have upset me greatly. In this digital age stringent laws are required to prevent abused children being exploited by nefarious individuals on the internet. As I said, the recent case of children living in squalor without parents in the Blue Mountains is so difficult to understand. How can a parent leave their children in a situation like that, especially children who had serious medical difficulties? How can we as a community not recognise these children living on their own without parents? I found it difficult to understand that reports had been made to the RSPCA concerning the dog on the premises rather than reports to child welfare authorities. The question you have to ask is: why is it easier to ensure the welfare of our pets than the safety of our children?

NAPCAN is not a huge organisation. It is a small team who work long hours and who are dedicated and committed to the importance of this great cause. To this end I would like to congratulate NAPCAN, its staff and its board for the fine work they do in delivering these programs and raising the awareness of the general public to this very important issue. I would especially like to congratulate Maree Faulkner, the CEO of NAPCAN, someone I have been working with over the past month. Maree is a fine and decent person who works tirelessly in promoting fundraising and developing programs for the NAPCAN organisation.

I cannot overemphasise the importance of this issue to me as a senator. As a parent I find these issues abhorrent. The welfare of my own children and the welfare of all our children is of critical importance. This parliament and the members in this chamber and the other place in the past had a committee that dealt with the issue of child abuse and neglect. Unfortunately it has fallen away and does not operate at present. My belief is that this parliamentary group should be re-formed as a matter of urgency, and that is something I will be working towards. I have had numerous discussions with members on the other side of both chambers, including Pat Farmer and Helen Kroger. It is something we will be working towards very soon, to get the parliamentary group re-established to raise awareness of members of parliament and to raise awareness of the policymakers to ensure that this matter receives the serious attention and the funding that it deserves.