Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is great to get up today to highlight some important events that have taken place here in Canberra in the last few weeks.

In particular, two weeks ago we celebrated National Adoption Awareness Week, and it was my pleasure to launch the week and help shine a spotlight on adoption in Australia. I do not think enough Australians are aware of just how many children across Australia are in out-of-home care. The numbers are quite staggering: over 40,000 Australian children are in out-of-home care at any given time—around 43,000 currently. Yet only 209 domestic adoptions took place in 2014-15, the last year that we have statistics for. It is worth repeating those numbers. There are 43,000 kids in out-of-home care and there were only 209 adoptions in Australia in that 2014-15 year.

This is a fundamental problem. There are tens of thousands of kids who are not being given the kind of stability that we know that they deserve, that they need and that is critical to their wellbeing. We all know intuitively that stability and love are critical for children. But science is telling us more and more. We see study after study showing that, when kids have that stability, their life outcomes tend to be much better. We know that, when they lack stability, when they go from place to place, from home to home—in many cases, several foster-care placements; in some cases, more than 10, 12 or 15—the life outcomes for those children are nowhere near what they should be and in many cases are quite tragic.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a report in October which found that young people who were in the care and protection system were 14 times more likely to be part of the youth justice system. This is another shocking statistic that goes to this point. At the end of National Adoption Awareness Week I had an opportunity to meet with relevant state and territory ministers and made some undertakings to continue to advance permanency. These are good sentiments, and it is important that we now start to put them in place with actions so that more kids have stability, more kids are adopted and more kids have the kind of care they need and deserve.

I want to commend the work of Adopt Change for their advocacy in this space and their work on Adoption Awareness Week. Its CEO is Renee Carter and it has a wonderful board. Catherine McDonnell is the chair; Victoria Buchan, Kerry Chikarovski, Helen McCabe, John O'Neill and Deborra-lee Furness—who founded Adopt Change—are members. They have done some wonderful work.

I would also like to thank Lisa Sthalekar, Brad Murphy and Bernadette Blenkiron for sharing their stories at the launch here during that week, and Chauntelle McNamara, who was ACT Barnados Mother of the Year 2015 also attended. I want to thank all those people in the ACT who have shared their experiences with me of adoption, foster and out-of-home care.

Another event that I want to highlight is Diwali. Diwali is, of course, the Festival of Lights; it is a celebration of peace and the victories of good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. I had the honour of co-hosting the Hindu Council of Australia's Diwali celebration at Parliament House on 7 November, which has been a regular affair here since 2004. We host a lot of functions here in the people's house, but I think our Diwali events are among the best celebrations we have each year. It was great fun to share in the festivities with members of the Hindu community and many of my parliamentary colleagues. I know that all around the country local communities are coming together to share in the Diwali spirit of giving among family and close friends.

I had the opportunity to attend other Diwali functions in Castle Hill and Liverpool; they were wonderful events. I would like to thank His Excellency Navdeep Suri, the High Commissioner of India, for joining us for the celebrations, and I think his presence is indicative of the strong friendship between Australia and India and the strong links between the Hindu and wider Australian community. I would also like to thank Professor Nihal Agar and Prakash Mehta, who are the chairman and director of the Hindu Council, respectively. I would also like to acknowledge the vibrant Indian community of the ACT, represented by the President of FINACT—the Federation of Indian Associations of the ACT—Mr Amardeep Singh, who is a great community leader and a great representative of his community.

On another issue, 23 October is an important day for Hungary as it marks the 1956 Hungarian revolution. It was a great honour to be part of commemorations for the 60th anniversary of this important day with members of the Canberra Hungarian community. This event reminded me of time in the not-too-distant past when the Soviet Union sought to control the lands and the peoples of Europe under their brutal regime. The dictatorial ambition of Stalin and the Soviets drove many to flee from their homelands to escape oppression—many Hungarians who since have made their lives in Australia, as well as people from other parts of Europe which had also come under communist control, including the former Yugoslavia, where my own family came from.

The Hungarian revolution shook the Soviet machine and began the long march towards the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the USSR a couple of years later. This anniversary is a celebration of freedom and the belief that human liberty can overthrow the forces of violence and oppression. We remember the 2500 Hungarians who lost their lives fighting in the revolution and the 1200 executed by the communist government in the aftermath. It may have taken another 40 years for the Soviet Union to fall, but the human desire for freedom and human dignity lingered on in the Hungarian people during that time, thanks to the sacrifice of their fellow countrymen and women. Their fight for freedom in 1956 reminds us of the value of freedom. It is something worth fighting for. It was great to have Steve Doszpot, MLA, himself a Hungarian refugee, at the event to show his support.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge a great Australian and a great Canberran, Alan Tongue, who was recently named the ACT Australian of the Year. I want to thank Alan for his hard work in our community in working with at-risk youth and mentoring juvenile offenders. I am really glad to see Alan get recognition for his efforts in the Canberra community since retiring from the NRL. I think he really understands the vulnerable position a lot of youth offenders are in, and his Aspire program gives them the life skills and the strong role models they need to find some stability and put their lives back together.

Alan has worked closely with community organisations across the ACT and beyond, and I commend him for his work with the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, the Alexander Maconochie Centre and in schools across Canberra, as well as his efforts at the Early Morning Centre, serving breakfast to people sleeping rough in Canberra. I think that Alan is a wonderful example to young people today. It is always inspiring to see our local sporting heroes, as Alan is, giving back so thoroughly to our community. I think all Canberrans are very proud of Alan Tongue. We do not know who will be the Australian of the Year, but can I say that Alan Tongue would be an outstanding choice. I commend him for his contribution to our community, to Canberra and to our nation more broadly.