QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE › National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:47): I thank Senator Thorpe for the question. I will come back with further information if I'm not able to fully answer the question that you've asked. The commissioner's work will be focusing on reducing the number of children in out-of-home care, strengthening families and keeping children and young people safe. An interim commissioner will begin work midyear. Resourcing is obviously being provided for that. As you say, there have been a number of reports into child protection since the Bringing them home report in 2007. I think the feedback that the Minister for Indigenous Australians has is that First Nations people want action, not more reports. So this is a very significant announcement, to have a commissioner. Certainly in the years that I was involved in child protection and in out-of-home care— The PRESIDENT: Minister, please resume your seat. Senator Thorpe? Senator Thorpe: Relevance. The PRESIDENT: Is that your point of order? Senator Thorpe: Are the recommendations going to be used as part of the commissioner's role? The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Thorpe. The minister is being relevant, and she also undertook, if she wasn't able to fully answer your question, to seek further information. But she is being relevant. Senator GALLAGHER: I will come back to Senator Thorpe if there is more information than I am able to provide her today, but one of the points I made was that there have been a number of reports, including theBringing them home report, which have a number of recommendations, and certainly I would believe there's an expectation that the commissioner is looking at all of those recommendations, and that would inform the work that needs to be done. This is an area that has been fraught for a long time, the issue generally of child protection across the community but particularly for First Nations children in out-of-home care and how to provide appropriate support to them and their families and put in arrangements to support them as best as they can. I know that from experience, being a child protection minister for a few years. If there is more that I can provide, Senator Thorpe, in terms of how they would implement the recommendations, I will bring that back. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, a first supplementary?