Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. What action is the government taking to support children at risk of abuse or neglect?

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

I thank the member for Dobell for his question. This is an issue that I know every single member of this House and the Senate feels very strongly about. It is important that we pursue these issues every day of the year, but I want to raise particular matters today and this week. This week is National Child Protection Week and today is White Balloon Day. White Balloon Day is the day on which we particularly raise the very confronting issue of child sexual abuse. The theme for the day and in fact for the year is: ‘Break the silence on child sexual assault. It’s ALL WHITE to say no’. These are very difficult issues for everyone, particularly for the children who are victims of this terrible abuse. It is also National Child Protection Week. The theme this year for National Child Protection Week, a similar theme to that for White Balloon Day, is: ‘Help bring child abuse out into the open’. Once again, it is a job that we all have a responsibility to do to make sure that we raise public awareness of the terrible levels of child abuse and neglect taking place in our country.

The stark facts are that in 2007-08 there were more than 55,000 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in our country. The level of substantiated abuse and neglect has in fact doubled over the last decade. The terrible facts are that Indigenous children are more than six times more likely to be the subject of abuse or neglect. It is important that we remember these are not just figures in a report. Each and every one of them reflects a child that has been either neglected or abused.

This is a national problem and one that requires us to show national leadership. For the first time we now have a national child protection framework. We are working with the state and territory authorities and with the non-government sector to do everything we can to protect children in our country. One of the things that we have moved to do quickly is to improve information sharing between the Commonwealth and state child protection authorities. One of the things I have announced just this week is that Medicare Australia can now provide information to state child protection authorities. This could be medical information that could be useful to foster carers as they go about the very important job of meeting the health needs of children in their care. It could also be used by child protection authorities that are building a case against abusive parents. Those authorities will now have access to medical records that may show evidence of abuse.

These Medicare arrangements will build on the success of the information sharing that we have already begun between Centrelink and child protection authorities. There have been more than 2,000 requests for information from Centrelink to child protection authorities, and this protocol only began in January this year. This information from Centrelink can be used to help child protection workers locate families where children are at risk of harm and stop vulnerable children from falling through the gaps when families, for example, move interstate.

I take this opportunity to thank the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, otherwise known as NAPCAN, for their leadership and the work that they do to run Child Protection Week. Also, yesterday we had Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston here to help us mark White Balloon Day. She was joined by many members and senators and, most importantly, officers from the police force and other emergency services—people who are so important in helping all of us with the critical job of protecting our children.