Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I want to say a couple of things at the outset. Every single member of this House is horrified by the revelations in the Mullighan inquiry. Unfortunately, they are not new revelations. They are revelations that have been known to many people for a long time. They are revelations that, unfortunately, are being replicated in other parts of Australia. We are all very well aware of what is happening in the Northern Territory, the Kimberley and Cape York, to name just a few places where we have shocking levels of child abuse. The new Australian government have taken the view that we should provide some leadership and develop a national child protection framework, which we are doing. We intend to release a discussion paper on this issue very shortly. I look forward to contributions from all members of the House on the whole question of what the national government—

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