Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Being a foster carer is an incredibly fulfilling job, or should I say volunteer position, and one of the most difficult challenges someone can undertake. To bring into your home a child in need is one of the greatest acts of care there is. To care for kids in out-of-home care is the honour of a lifetime.

I recently had the privilege of launching the Parliamentary Friends of Foster Carers and Children in Foster Care group. Along with my co-chairs, we gathered voices from across the broad foster care community, from advocacy groups, like Families Australia and the National Foster Care Sustainability Group, through to foster children themselves. Those voices are the most important of all. One child that I met said that all she wanted to do was to be able to get a photo taken with the group. She wasn't allowed because of her being in foster care. She just wanted to be like everybody else.

Every story was a reminder that behind the policies and programs, there are lives shaped by care, patience and empathy. Getting to hear those stories, like so many I've heard as a foster carer, reminds me of the importance of the work I've come to do in this parliament: to advocate for children in foster care, to support the carers who give them so much of their time and energy, and to remind the parliament that our policies affect real people. That is why I will keep working to make sure that every child in every care has a voice in this place.