Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was with great pleasure I attended the Child Protection Week brunch with carers in Townsville last Wednesday, 7 September. The brunch was to simply say thank you to those who take part in foster care. There were 28 Townsville carers groups in attendance at the brunch. Three were kinship carer groups which look after the kids of family or friends and 25 were foster carer groups.

Matthew Lupi, as the regional director of Carers Queensland, set out a challenge for all the staff. It was a truly good speech, but he has to watch what he says when it comes to actual follow-through for his staff. He laid out the challenge to go above and beyond the call of duty, to spend time after hours and to look after people during meal times. But the problem we have when we set down challenges for people in these positions is that, if something goes wrong, the immediate response by management is to check the rule book and see whether they were following procedure. If they were not exactly following procedure, they do tend to get belted. I just ask Matthew, while his intentions were fantastic, to make sure that management is backing sales every time.

At this event I had brought to my attention Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids. The Townsville project is run by Trish Loveday. All too often, when a child is taken to a foster home, they have only the clothes on their back. Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids gets them settled in to unfamiliar territory with loving attention. Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids arrive with the child. For a grown child, they contain two sets of clothes, underwear, footwear, games to play, books to read, toothbrushes and toiletries. Backpacks are provided for everyone, including babies, with nappies, wipes and everything. Too often, these kids are taken into care and they have nothing but the clothes on their backs. Does it happen often? Yes, it does. Should it happen at all? No, it should not. The backpacks are designed to provide kids with their own possessions to make the transition a little bit easier and to provide some consistency and comfort for those who are moved from house to house.

Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids began in 2009 in Innisfail with the goal of creating 1,000 backpacks. They have now put together over 2,100 backpacks and have increased their goal to 5,000. The organisation has grown to include projects in Townsville, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Backpacks are made and stored locally in Townsville.

Shared Family Care is a foster and kinship care non-government organisation that provides storage and other support and is the main donation point for Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids. Trish Loveday is looking to continue to expand the project to help kids in Mt Isa and Mackay. Tonight I call for anyone in Townsville or throughout Australia to get behind this worthy project and drop off fully packed backpacks for a baby or child, donate individual items to Shared Family Care centres or donate money for a backpack through the Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids website. I urge everyone to take this up.

There are 150 of us in this House. If we can all organise two people to donate a fully packed backpack, that would be another 300 towards the 5,000. This is what is good about our community; this is what is good about being in this House; this is what is good about my city—that there are people out there who do much but do not judge. These people just help because they can. It makes me proud that I am from Townsville. It makes me proud that I was there.

I also say a personal farewell to one particular childcare worker who has been transferred to Sydney and will probably take some time off. She will be missed in Townsville. She would not want her name mentioned in this place or anywhere—that is the kind of person she is. To all the people who are involved in child care and child safety, I say thank you very much on behalf of my community in Townsville. It is truly wonderful what you do. To those people who come to me or to anyone in this House chasing information and feeling that they have not been treated correctly by childcare centres, I asked them to recognise first and foremost that their duty is the safety of a child. When you are faced with anything, you will always fess up—you will always take the point of view of what is best for the child.