Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Heffernan, move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the fundamental human rights and protections contained in the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, and notes in that regard:

(i)

the release on 11 October 2006 of the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Study on violence against children’ report, which sheds light on the scale and impact of violence done to children across cultures, classes and ethnic origins,

(ii)

that the report states that the majority of violence perpetrated on vulnerable children around the world is carried out by people who are part of their daily lives, and

(iii)

that the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission urges the Federal Government to consider the report’s recommendations to counter violence against children;

(b)

having regard to their respective areas of responsibility, calls on the Commonwealth, state and territory governments to invest heavily to protect children in Australia from violence, including:

(i)

investing in violence prevention programs that address immediate risk factors, such as lack of parent-child attachment, family breakdown, abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, and

(ii)

developing economic and social policies that address in a substantial way significant economic and social circumstances such as poverty, income gaps and other forms of inequality that negatively affect children, and

(c)

calls on the governments concerned to keep progress under review through the Council of Australian Governments’ processes.

Question agreed to.