Walking the talk: Towards authentic child voice
Children's Rights
Child Aware Approaches Conference
Making Child Wellbeing and Safety Your Responsibility
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
11-12 April 2013
Video and Audio
Children's voices
Listen to the children’s voices.mp3
[Transcript of voices in speech below]
It’s fantastic to be amongst so many people committed to the wellbeing of Australia’s children. I’m thrilled to have been invited today by Prue Warrilow, Brian Babington and Families Australia and feel honoured to deliver the Berry Street Childhood Institute Families Australia Oration as my first speaking engagement as inaugural National Children’s Commissioner. I also thank other sponsors of the Oration, Ms Sandi De Wolf, CEO, Berry Street and Ms Margaret Hamley, Director of the Berry Street Childhood Institute. I would also like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples, Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this conference takes place, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I do not need to explain to this audience that the call to establish a National Children’s Commissioner has been around since Australia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Over this time, a range of groups - including Families Australia, and the Australian Human Rights Commission - repeatedly highlighted the need for a dedicated national advocate for children. Meanwhile, several Bills were presented without success to parliament, with recent impetus provided by the Australian Government’s First Action Plan of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2012. Legislation was eventually passed last year to establish the role and I congratulate the government for taking this step to acknowledge the needs of Australia’s children. With this long history it’s no surprise that we’re all anxious to get off the starting blocks. We know that there is much to be done, and many gaps to be addressed. This afternoon, therefore, it is tempting to recite a catalogue of all the issues that need attention and, certainly, as well as outlining my role, I aim to identify some urgent child rights issues. As children are so diverse, with such a diverse range of needs and experiences, it is not possible to do them all justice in one address. What is more essential, perhaps, is to build an understanding of the framework through which these issues can be approached, as well as to establish a genuine readiness to listen and engage. For, as is the case with any sector of the population vulnerable to disadvantage, too often we make the mistake of shaping an agenda for them, rather than with them. In fact, often the casualty of recognition of people’s vulnerabilities is a failure to acknowledge their agency. While this may be a particularly complex balancing act when contemplating issues relating to children, it is nevertheless essential to acknowledge that children can and should participate in decisions which affect them. This is a fundamental principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. What’s more, children’s innate understanding of fair play and equal treatment has a lot to teach the adult world about the promotion of human rights and, certainly, recent years have seen much said about the importance of listening to and respecting children’s voices. It’s harder, however, to match the rhetoric to the reality. Even when legislation does require children to participate in the decisions made about them, there are limited examples of this occurring and even fewer instances where feedback is given or action taken as a result. I come to the role, then, with some initial priorities, yes, with much determination and a child rights framework through which to approach them. Above all, however, I come with the aim of facilitating an authentic child voice being heard throughout Australian public policy. This means that I was encouraged by the fact that, as part of my recruitment process, I was asked to discuss a topic of contemporary interest with a small group of Year 4 & 5 students from Kingsford Smith School, in Holt, ACT. The aim was to simulate a general consultation with children, and to evaluate how well each applicant communicated with children regarding a particular topic. Students participating in the sessions were volunteers, aged between 9 and 11 years of age. They were from a range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and had varying levels of literacy and verbal skills. During introductory sessions, the students were asked: What do you think the National Children’s Commissioner should be like? What characteristics should they have? A nine year old boy, ten year old girl and twelve year old girl have kindly agreed to read some of these students’ responses for us. [Recording of voices reading the following responses by children from Kingsford Smith School. I think we would all agree – as did the ACT’s Children and Young Person’s Commissioner, who helped organise the session - that the children accurately identify many important characteristics of an effective Commissioner. I like to think that I meet at least some of the criteria, though I will leave it to your judgment as to whether I am fairly young, or not. I can attest, however, to not being a zombie quite yet! Nevertheless, their words demonstrate that, with sufficient time and preparation, children and young people were well able to participate in the broader selection process. I feel honoured, then, to have been chosen via a process which involved children, at least in some part. I see my main role as The Australian Human Rights Commission Act sets out more precisely some of the tools I must use to perform my role. These include: I will be part of the collegiate body at the Australian Human Rights Commission, made up of a President, who is also the Human Rights Commissioner, and six other Commissioners with carriage for Race Discrimination, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice, Sex Discrimination, Disability Discrimination and Age Discrimination. This collegiate approach will be of great assistance, given that specialist Commissioners and policy units conduct work on a broad range of issues impacting on children’s rights, such as those affecting children with disabilities, Indigenous children, the girl-child, race discrimination, child asylum-seekers and refugees. What’s more, the Commission has existing mechanisms for resolving individual complaints and can intervene in court proceedings that involve children’s rights issues. The Commission has also conducted significant work on children’s rights prior to the establishment of the dedicated role. For example, in 2004, it conducted a national inquiry into children in immigration detention; and in 2012 released a national inquiry into the age assessment of young Indonesian fishing crew suspected of people smuggling offences. Further, the Commission is currently prioritising work that: These are things that cut across the experience of all children everywhere. I was really excited, then, to see the powerful anti-bullying ads created by young people in the Commission’s BackMeUp campaign which, in partnership with a range of agencies and social media organisations, offered young people the tools to take safe and effective action when they witness cyber-bullying. Equally promising is the Commission’s participation in consultations on the national school curriculum. Despite its significant work on protecting children’s rights, however, there has been no Commissioner dedicated solely to child rights, and, until now, the Commission has not been specifically resourced to conduct policy work in this area. I am very excited, then, by the prospect of working together with the Commission and with external partners to bring the human rights of children firmly and squarely into the spotlight. There are several areas of work at the Commission on which I am keen to collaborate. One relates to the work of Mick Gooda, the Aboriginal and Social Justice Commissioner, in promoting Justice Reinvestment. This is a strategy to help reverse the high levels of Indigenous incarceration by reorienting criminal justice systems towards prevention, rather than detention, and investing resources into communities with high concentrations of offenders. As Mick Gooda has said, the current approach to offending is clearly not working and it is critical to find ways to prevent offending, and reoffending, from an early age. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Indigenous children aged 10-17 years were 31 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be in detention on an average night in 2012, up from 27 times as likely in 2008. That is, 1 in every 217 Indigenous young people aged 10-17 were in detention on an average night.[1] Clearly, we must do better and, in addition to working with Mick Gooda, I hope to work with state and territory counterparts to ensure children’s interests are adequately monitored in juvenile justice systems and examine how children can be more effectively diverted away from contact with these systems. Another related area at the Commission is a project led by Graeme Innes, the Disability Discrimination Commissioner. Research shows that many people with disability have inadequate access to justice within the criminal justice system, especially those who need communication supports or who have complex and multiple support needs. For example, they may not receive the support, adjustments or aids they need to participate in court processes. The consequences of this can be extremely serious for adults and children alike, but compounds the vulnerability that any child in the justice system already experiences. For example, there may be added difficulties in having their views properly taken into account. The Disability Discrimination Commissioner’s project will identify the impediments to access to justice for people with communication impairment, outline best practice, and incorporate a human rights approach into this practice. I am keen to be part of and contribute to this project so that the needs of children with disabilities who are victims, witnesses and offenders are better understood and responded to. The foundation of all of this work, of course, must be a child rights perspective – one which holds decision makers to account; which recognises that children have agency as rights-holders and which is based firmly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This Convention, as you will know, is the most important of the human rights treaties underpinning the work of the Children’s Commissioner. It recognises that children have the same basic human rights as adults, while also needing special protection due to the vulnerability of them being children. When it came into effect, children were recognised as rights-bearers for the first time in the international human rights treaty system. Apart from its ethical and moral force, the Convention is a legal document which sets out standards, and assigns responsibility for ensuring these standards are met. Australia has obligations to realise the rights in the Convention as, by ratifying the treaty, it has promised, at international law, to protect a range of children’s rights. The question, of course, is whether the nation has made good on this promise. Certainly, it is inspiring to see that the principles that underpin the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children are in line with the Convention. For example, the right to participate is one of the principles in the Framework which I hope will be integrated more fully into the Second Action Plan. However, as many of you know, last June the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its Concluding Observations on Australia’s five-year progress in implementing the Convention. These show that, while Australia has made some progress, there are still many children who fall through the gaps. In particular, the Committee made crucial observations regarding the Convention’s guiding principles of: These guiding principles are the building blocks for a child-centred approach to legislation, policy and practice, so it’s vital to reflect on what the UN Committee said. The UN Committee was particularly concerned about the widespread discrimination faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including in terms of the provision of and accessibility to basic services; as well as significant overrepresentation in the criminal justice system and in out-of-home care. I have already touched on the rise in Indigenous children incarcerated on any one night. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has also revealed, however, that there is a record 39,621children in out-of-home care, with the rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home care 10 times the rate for non-Indigenous children.[2] There has also been a 20 per cent jump in the number of substantiated abuse and neglect cases involving 37,781 children (6254 more than the year before). And Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were eight times more likely than other children to be the subject of substantiated child abuse and neglect.[3] We cannot – and must not – be immune to figures like these. Addressing the needs of especially vulnerable children, such as Indigenous children in contact with the child protection system, is surely one of our collective national challenges. Under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act, I am able to give particular attention to children who are at risk or vulnerable. While the Act does not specify any specific groups, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has certainly identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children as just one of the groups needing particular attention. I therefore look forward to being part of the work that the Second Action Plan of the National Framework is going to pursue in terms of child safety for Indigenous children under the National Priority of Closing the Gap. The UN Committee was also concerned that the principle of the best interests of the child is not widely known, appropriately integrated and consistently applied in all legal frameworks impacting on children. There are, of course, areas where this principle has been embedded in law, the primary example being family law. Following recent amendments, the Family Law Act now incorporates a direct reference to the Convention, unambiguously prioritising children’s safety in parenting matters. All state and territory child protection laws also have the best interests of the child at their centre, which helps drive good practice. However, this principle has not been sufficiently integrated into other areas relevant to children, for example in regard to asylum seeker children and children in detention. Further, there is frequently a disjunct between the practitioner and the policy-maker in implementing this principle, despite good intentions. Addressing this disparity will be fundamental in implementing the Convention, and monitoring its impact, and something I am interested in exploring. The right to life, survival and development is also a fundamental principle of the Convention – without these preconditions, how can children thrive? The UN Committee expressed a number of concerns about the socio-economic conditions of certain groups of children in Australia. For example, it noted the significant health disparities of children living in rural and remote areas, children in out-of-home care as well as children with disabilities and the gap in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. It is pleasing that some measures to address these disparities are having an effect, such as the recent announcement under the Close the Gap campaign that under-five mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are starting to fall,[4] though we need assurances that funding will continue after June this year when the National Partnership Agreement runs out. Meanwhile, the latest Australian Early Development Index indicates some other improvements. Since the first index in 2009, the percentage of developmentally vulnerable children has decreased, and the proportion of vulnerable Indigenous children has fallen from 47 per cent to 43 per cent. However, these figures are obviously still way too high. I am also concerned that we are not addressing the socio-economic needs of certain vulnerable groups of children. For example, the recent Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth report card showed that the gap between rich and poor is increasing. In fact, over one in six children lived at or below the poverty line in 2010, putting Australia in the bottom third of OECD countries in that respect.[5] In addition, as many as 15 per cent of 0-14 years olds live in jobless families, which puts Australia fourth last out of all OECD countries for that indicator.[6] These extraordinary figures surely call into question whether children’s needs are being properly considered in social welfare measures, and in the suite of supports families and children need to safeguard their welfare when work or well-paid work is not an option. Finally, the UN Committee acknowledged that Australia has put some mechanisms in place for the participation of young people, but that significant gaps remain, in particular for children under 15. As I explained, I am especially interested in how we can promote meaningful participation of children in the decisions and processes that affect them. After all, participation is fundamental to the enjoyment of other rights, with so many ways in which it can be facilitated. For example, the individual complaints systems, which many adults use to address injustices, so often do not adequately engage children and young people. How can children who suffer injustice seek redress if mechanisms are inaccessible and inappropriate? This is an area that needs urgent examination. We must also get better at using mechanisms that allow children and young people to be heard. For example, I understand that the first national on-line survey of children in out-of-home care is currently being piloted in NSW, Victoria, WA and Queensland. This is a great step forward. It will be important for us to ensure the results are used to drive the quality of practice across Australia, so that all kids, no matter where they live, receive the finest care that we can provide them. Equally, I would like to see children’s rights principles incorporated into that survey over time. Either way, it is essential to hear from children and young people about their experiences. As an example, according to the CREATE 2013 report card 2013, less than one third of children and young people surveyed knew about the existence of a care or case plan for them.[7] This reveals that many children in care are not adequately involved in decisions which directly affect them. There are many practical changes that can be made to reverse this situation. For example, with the help of CREATE, young people now regularly assist with caseworker training, demonstrating the benefits of engaging young people. But put simply, we must learn from the mistakes of the past, when children’s voices were ignored with devastating consequences. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will, I am sure, uncover stories where children’s voices were unheard, and even when heard, were deliberately not taken into account. We need to make sure our attitudes and our systems respect the child’s voice. This is one of the essential ways that we can help children to be safe; to realise their potential; and to live full and happy lives. In the end, of course, there is no better advertisement for children’s participation than the views of children themselves. I will now play you some excerpts from a short DVD made by the CREATE Foundation and which was shown at the 2012 ACWA Conference on Youth Participation. The young people speaking in this excerpt are no longer children themselves, but are speaking about their recent experiences of being children in out-of-home care. [CREATE DVD] As Joelene tells us in the DVD, if you are old enough to be told and to understand the results of a decision about your life, then you are old enough to be involved in that decision in some way. This returns me, then, to the beginning of my speech. Over the next few weeks, my team and I will be mapping out a National Listening Tour, to commence as soon as possible, so that I can talk directly to children, and children’s advocates, about what is important to them. Given the diversity of children within the community, we need to think carefully about how their views are best obtained. I would like to use the results of the Listening Tour to guide our future work, so it is important that we hear from different groups of children, across states and territories. That said, it will not be possible for us to cover absolutely every issue relating to children, as much as I would like. Some tough choices will have to be made about priorities. What I can say with certainty is that ensuring the authentic child voice will be part of the package. In five years’ time I would like to be able to say that genuine engagement of children in decisions that affect them is a systematic part of decision-making, both within government and within agencies that work with or on behalf of children. I look forward to sharing in that work with many of you here today. It is only by working together that we can enable children to be better heard and, in doing so, make children’s rights a reality - for every child, everywhere, every day. Thank you. [1] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Juvenile detention population in Australia: 2012, p vii.
1. Acknowledgments
2. Introduction
3. Selection Process
4. So how will I live up to those children’s expectations?
5. Some collaborative projects at the Commission
6. The Convention on the Rights of the Child
6(a) Guiding principle: Non-discrimination (article 2)
6b Guiding principle: Best interests of the child (article 3)
6(c) Guiding princi2ple: Right to life, survival and development (article 6)
6(d) Guiding principle: Respect for the views of the child (article 12)
7. Conclusion – it starts with listening
[2] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child protection in Australia 2011-12, p 41.
[3] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child protection in Australia 2011-12, p ix.
[4] Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, Close the Gap Shadow Report 2013, pp 15-17.
[5] Media release on the ARACY Report Card – the wellbeing of young Australians, 15 March 2013.
[6] ARACY, Report Card – the wellbeing of young Australians, 2013, p 11.
[7] CREATE, Experiencing Out-of-Home Care in Australia, the Views of Children and Young People, CREATE Report Card 2013, p 87.