Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

When children come into contact with the criminal justice system, we've already failed them. That's a fact. If they are in the system, then the main consideration must be their own safety and that of others, and that they do the work that gives them the greatest chance of not coming back. Proven diversionary programs and safety mechanisms are one part of the solution, but so, too, is addressing how they got there.

Senator Thorpe's motion calls for a UN based approach, which means both parents share responsibility for bringing up children and should always consider what is in the best interests of each child. If that's what Senator Thorpe means, then the coalition agrees. It should not be controversial for parents to share responsibility for bringing up a child where it is safe to do so. We can talk systems, fault and failures, but we also need to talk much more about parents and parenting.

We should also talk more about Commonwealth, state, territory and local government programs that exist to support children and are supposed to provide a safety net for them. Where that safety net fails, we must be courageous about fixing the gaps, and that means ending funding for feel-good programs without clinical efficacy, evidence or outcomes. Children rely on us to demand service delivery excellence, because it is the best and most effective way to change lives, and quickly. To do anything else robs children of their future.

Every one of Australia's five million children has the right to live and grow up healthy. Children have a right to be safe no matter where they are. There is no cultural, gender, economic or social excuse that is anywhere near plausible for violence. Children have a right to receive an education, but parents also have a responsibility to get them to school. Children have a right to be treated fairly and have a say about decisions affecting them. These concepts form the basis of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory.

One in six Australian children live in poverty. The number of children in contact with child protection systems continues to rise for all children, and again Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are overrepresented. Early intervention and prevention take time but can have great effect. There must be levers to drive change for parents and to improve parenting. So many children in the justice system have parents who know the confines of police cells and prisons all too well, so the focus needs to also be on them. For too many children, money comes from welfare, as it did for their parents, so the focus needs to engage them in work where that is possible. I'm talking about parents, whoever and wherever they are, who are locked in gambling, alcohol, drug and welfare addiction getting access to clinically proven services where they need them, not just yarning circles or a program they can't even access for seven months. To change the trajectory for children, you must also change the trajectory for parents for sustainable change.

In this place, when you stand for nothing that demands anything different, nothing changes. Here's proof that announcement is not enough: what about the Albanese government spending $400 million on community safety in Central Australia but failing to intercept groups of young children making their way into town before they get into trouble? The night I was in Alice Springs, more than 500 windows were broken, but so much more than glass was shattered that night. Where are the taxpayer funded service providers whose job it is to divert those children, and where are the youth programs that exist to prevent them from getting into trouble in the first place? All levels of government should begin rejecting the paternalism, the narrative that does nothing for change. They all need good diversionary programs and safety mechanisms, not just for the community but for the children themselves.

Our laws must consider the safety of every individual, family and community and their property, and that means an expectation of the need to protect everyone from harm. That's because one child in contact with the criminal justice system is one too many, and we can do so much more to intercept them before they get there, to safeguard them in custody and to make sure they do not return. If that's what Senator Thorpe means by a rights based approach, then the coalition agrees, and every senator in this place should too.