Media Release by The Hon Jenny Macklin MP

Play your part to protect our children

Joint Media Release with:

  • The Hon Jenny Macklin MP, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

  • The Hon Julie Collins MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services

The Gillard Government is encouraging all Australians to embrace National Child Protection Week 2011 and do their part to help build a society that protects children from abuse and neglect.

This year’s theme is ‘Play Your Part’, and highlights the importance of working together to protect our children from abuse.

Protecting children and their right to a safe and healthy life is one of the most important responsibilities of all governments.

The Gillard Government, in partnership with state and territory governments and the non government sector, has developed a National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children – an ambitious, long-term approach to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Australian children.

Through the first ever National Framework, the Gillard Government is leading the way on reforms that protect and ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people right across the country.

State and territory governments rightly retain responsibility for statutory child protection, but for the first time, an Australian Government is taking a national leadership role.

We have made significant progress in the first two years of the Framework, including:

  • National Standards for Out of Home Care
  • More than 50 new Indigenous Parenting Support Services
  • Eight new Communities for Children Plus sites across Australia for children at risk
  • New information sharing processes between Commonwealth agencies, including Centrelink and Medicare, and state child protection agencies
  • Increased payments for young people leaving care
  • Trialling a new tool to assess the needs of vulnerable children and their families in four communities across Australia
  • Establishing a network of 25 grandparent peer support groups

We continue to build on our progress through programs such as the new Family Support Program, a more than $1 billion investment in support and services over the next three years, particularly for vulnerable and disadvantaged families.

The Gillard Government has provided $300,000 to the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) to host National Child Protection Week events and activities around Australia.

In promoting National Child Protection Week, NAPCAN provides a valuable service to help prevent child abuse and neglect.

To highlight what we can all do, NAPCAN has developed new interactive and media resources, including a YouTube Channel showing how young people have broken the cycle of abuse and neglect, and an interactive website to showcase what Australians are doing – as parents, siblings, professionals, teachers, business and corporations – to keep children and young people safe in their communities.

Fact sheets and posters and more details about how you and others can play your part are available from www.playyourpart.org.au