Thursday, 23 June 2022

Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Mr CARBINES:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (14:56): It is Thursday today. It is wonderful to have the opportunity, as always, to be the lead speaker on important legislation passing through this place. This legislation is particularly important because it addresses some of the issues that we have in management of the very, very vulnerable young children who are particularly in care. There are elements of this bill which we have already seen pass through this chamber during this term of Parliament—and I will refer to that in greater detail later in my contribution—but I am very concerned that the changes that are outlined within the legislation before us today should be a greater priority. They should be a focus of this government to pass sooner rather than later. They are sitting in the upper house at the moment. The debate can be brought on, and these changes could be made much, much sooner. But for whatever reason, rather than putting through the suite of changes that have been brought forward in the previous iteration of these amendments, one specific section has been cut out of that and brought forward in the bill that we will be debating today.

I do want to make it very, very clear at the outset that the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022 has the full support of the Liberals and Nationals. But can I say that the previous iteration, the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021, similarly had the full support of the Liberals and Nationals. We want to see additional protections in place for some of Victoria’s most vulnerable children. We know that there are plenty of opportunities to be able to do that, but for too long this has been a sector that is seen as too difficult and there have not been appropriate interventions and supports put in place to support these vulnerable children. So while absolutely we do support the bill before us today, we do encourage the government to go back to the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021 and to consider bringing that forward in the upper house so that legislation can be passed that will unlock exactly the same legislative changes that the bill before us today will enable but also bring in other important elements that will provide greater protections to some of Victoria’s most vulnerable children.

Firstly, I will go to what this specific bill will seek to address. This bill includes an Aboriginal statement of recognition and recognition principles relating to child protection in the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 and makes a range of other changes to children and health legislation. The key purpose of the bill is to amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to include an Aboriginal statement of recognition and recognition principles relating to child protection decision-making for Aboriginal children, to make amendments relating to authorisation of principal officers of an Aboriginal agency, to provide for use and disclosure of information to and by principal officers authorised under sections 18 or 19 of that act, to enable judicial registrars to exercise powers of magistrates to issue warrants for the purposes of having a child placed in emergency care and to enable judicial registrars to exercise the powers of registrars.

The main purposes of the bill are to amend the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to make transitional provision for suitability panels and to amend the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 in relation to the reportable conduct scheme to amend the definition of ‘employee’, to enable the Commission for Children and Young People to commence proceedings for offences relating to the reportable conduct scheme and to provide for the commission to monitor and enforce compliance with requirements under that act in relation to notification of reportable conduct by the head of an entity.

It will make minor amendments to the Child Wellbeing and Safety (Child Safe Standards Compliance and Enforcement) Amendment Act 2021 relating to commencement of proceedings. It will amend the Magistrates’ Court Act 1989 to enable judicial registrars to exercise powers of registrars. It will amend the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 to enable the commission to assist and support child protection clients, children and young persons in out-of-home care and children and young persons making the transition to independent living and amend other acts consequential to the Social Services Regulation Act 2021. It will amend the Health Services Act 1988 to include an Aboriginal statement of recognition and statement of recognition principles. It will also amend the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 to include an Aboriginal statement of recognition and statement of recognition principles.

These are of course all very, very important, particularly given what we have seen in the Parliament this week with the passage through this chamber of legislation relating to progression of treaty. We are increasingly seeing recognition of those Aboriginal statements of values within legislation. It is an important step forward for us that we recognise that harms have been done but that we are willing to walk with the First People of this land and ensure that we can in some way close the gap and provide better health outcomes, better educational outcomes and better societal outcomes for some of the more vulnerable people in our community. I am sure they will, but if these steps to incorporate statements around Aboriginal people within our legislation help to close that gap, then this is something that we should all definitely support.

I would like to just go back through some of the background of this legislation. The government’s child protection strategy for Aboriginal children and young people is guided by Wungurilwil Gapgapduir of 2018, a partnership with Aboriginal communities and the child and welfare sector based on the principle of self-determination, supporting the child and family sector based on the principles of self-determination, supporting Aboriginal organisations to case manage Aboriginal children in care and providing culturally safe and responsive reunification support services. The government committed to reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the care system by 45 per cent by 2031 as a signatory of the Closing the Gap national agreement. It is frightening to consider that there is a gap that could be closed by such a significant amount, but unfortunately that is what we see is the case here in Victoria.

In Victoria one in 10 Aboriginal children on any given day is in care. This is the worst rate in the country, and it has not improved over the past seven years. That is a catastrophic blight on the Victorian people and particularly the Victorian government. Having worked in the Northern Territory in the health system and having seen some devastating impacts on children of a system that has failed to listen to Aboriginal people and failed to enshrine self-determination in all elements—I note this was in the early 2000s, and things have certainly changed throughout the Northern Territory over that time—it is desperately distressing to see particularly Aboriginal children in situations where it is nearly accepted that they have worse health outcomes or societal outcomes than other people within our community. This should never be expected, and it should never be accepted.

I have seen horrific things in my time. I have seen the impacts of abuse and neglect. This is not just within Aboriginal communities; it is in all backgrounds and ethnicities and cultural backgrounds as well. It is a blight on every single Victorian that we allow this to happen at all. It is even worse that we allow it to happen at such a high rate to Aboriginal children in this state. As I said, one in 10 Aboriginal children on any given day is in care. It is disturbing, and it is something that must be addressed as a matter of urgency and not simply put in the too-hard basket; it is not something that can be ignored for a period of time or just accepted.

The Commission for Children and Young People’s annual report found that there had been a disproportionate increase in deaths of Aboriginal children in recent years, including representing 13 of the 45 children’s deaths last year. The Liberal-Nationals have been calling for greater powers for Aboriginal organisations for a significant period of time now. We will continue to be a strong voice and to walk with the Aboriginal community and First Nations people to ensure that we can close these gaps and not have these horrific numbers or statistics, which of course are reflective of individual Aboriginal children whose lives are being taken from them all too soon. It is why I encourage the government to re-look at a piece of legislation that came to this Parliament last year, the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021. While absolutely the changes that will be put into the legislative framework as part of the bill before us today are very, very important, the bill does overlook other improvements that would help strengthen protections for vulnerable children, including Aboriginal children, and help to close the gap but, most importantly, reduce the number of deaths of children in care each and every year.

It is very, very traumatic for some children in our community to be put in care—how they work through that system and sometimes the inability or the limited opportunities for them to get support for them to have a stable home environment. Consider this in the context of there being a reason that they are in state care, that they are allocated to a case worker and that they are receiving state government support, and that is that they have been through a traumatic experience in their original home environment. These children have not had the best start to life. That is why it is so critical that when we identify these children the government puts in place supports that react very, very quickly and that it makes sure that these children are put in as safe a scenario as possible, with those wraparound supports that they may need to help heal the trauma that they have experienced. It must also ensure that they receive long-term care and support that addresses any areas that they have fallen behind in either in their learning, in their cognitive development, in their education or just in their social integration—how they relate to other people—in a way that they feel safe, that they can express themselves and that looks after not just their physical but also their mental and emotional health as well. That is critically important.

One of the first steps that happens when a child is identified as in need of protection is that they are allocated a caseworker. What we found through the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings earlier this year was that more than 2500 vulnerable children in Victoria were unallocated cases or yet to be allocated a case manager. Over the COVID pandemic Victorians were hit extraordinarily hard by the impacts of lockdowns and restrictions. We saw the incidence of family violence and abuse in the home significantly escalate. The use and abuse of drugs and alcohol also significantly escalated. People were unable to access mental health support because the system was completely overwhelmed. And in many instances children found it very difficult to speak up because those opportunities to leave the dangerous environment of their own home were taken away from them. They were not able to go to school and to have a teacher who might pick up a change in their behaviour, perhaps a bruise that should not be there, a disassociation from their student community or from their interest in classwork or the other changes that our educators do such a fabulous job in identifying and reporting, as they are mandated to do.

Our children were taken away from their sporting activities, and we have so many opportunities through sporting engagement. You grow a child’s family and ability to access responsible adults in their life in a way that often is not available within a discrete family unit. I think it was Les Twentyman who first raised this with me about eight or nine years ago: that it increases a child’s access to adult mentors and support people and people who they can go to if they are distressed by about 90 people if they are just involved in one single sport in the community. It really does make an amazing difference in making sure children have access to more people who can help give them guidance and support and protect them if they are involved in sporting activities or music or the arts—whatever it might be. To be engaged in those elements just makes a massive difference to their lives. But, again, that was taken away from them.

We also saw a restriction in the ability for checks to take place by people who are employed to do that. One of the key checks of course is the first visit after you have had a baby by a maternal and child health welfare officer. The MCH nurses are absolutely fabulous. I am so fortunate to have had the support of wonderful Jenny and Jennifer when I had my gorgeous little girl, Ella. She is a COVID baby, and I certainly went through that experience of not being able to have visitors in hospital and of my son not being able to see his new sister and not knowing where his mum had gone. He was not able to come into hospital. But then it is that disassociation with one of those key people who identify when things are not quite right, and that can be the identification of anxiety and depression for the parents. It can be identified in that first home visit, which is a visit to the new mother’s home to make sure they are safe, that there is not anything dangerous going on. It could be a physical danger, such as an environment where there is clearly some drug abuse or there is criminal activity happening in the house. It could be that they identify there is a physical risk with someone who is particularly aggressive in the home environment. It could be that somebody in the family has not adjusted at all to having a new baby in the household. It can just be structural things that they do not have access to: a cot or those things that those who are more fortunate do not have to think about or worry about. But maternal child health nurses have not been able to conduct those in-home visits for the last 2½ years. It is a critical time in a lifetime—in those first few weeks, in a six-week visit—to have a maternal child health nurse come into a home and check. So often that would have picked up vulnerable mums and vulnerable dads but particularly vulnerable children, and they have not been able to return.

There have also been a lot of limitations on caseworkers and child protection workers to actually enter a home. If they hear of a report, whether it has come through a call to perhaps Kids Helpline or through another agency where someone has reached out for support, those referrals come through. The child protection services should come in, but they were limited in their ability to do that because of the restrictions and lockdowns. That has also accumulated in having harsher impacts on vulnerable children, who we should have stepped in earlier to help, who we should have made sure were removed from situations that were dangerous and were put an environment where they were safe and loved and had a roof over their head and food in their tummy and they were able to go to school. That was taken away, and we are just feeling the impacts of that in the Victorian community now.

I recently spoke to Kids Helpline, and they were such a valuable support mechanism for so many children across Victoria to assist them to reach out for help and support. This was not just for kids who were suffering from, as we know, much higher rates of anxiety and depression or feelings of loneliness because they were cut off from their friends and family, particularly those that did not have siblings or anyone in the home that they could relate to that was of a similar age, but it was also where kids were using particularly their web-based services, their web chat, to engage and reach out and say, ‘Things aren’t quite right in the home’. There were an escalated number of children who were contacting Kids Helpline over the lockdowns and restrictions in Victoria who were reporting sexual assaults in the home. There were children who were reporting family violence where they were at risk or their parent, their mum in particular, was at risk, and that sometimes would require Kids Helpline to call the police and get that intervention in place. I would like to put on the record the fabulous work of Kids Helpline. I cannot speak highly enough of them. Honestly, over the lockdowns and restrictions those organisations such as Kids Helpline, which is specifically designed to talk to and engage with children in many different mechanisms, but particularly with the way that they developed their web-based engagement, were fabulous. For some kids this was their only outlet, the only safe way they had to reach out for help and support. They did a great job. It is not just Kids Helpline—we know that other services did an amazing job—but specifically for kids we know they do it best.

When I spoke to Kids Helpline they were speaking about how so many children find it much easier to engage with the web-based program, which is a typing program where you engage with a counsellor that way rather than on the phone, and that is because they could do it safely in their room or they could go to the bathroom and do it. There was no noise that would come out of it. It was something they could do silently and feel safe and not judged. In some ways not having to articulate something verbally actually meant that they were able to convey some of their emotions and how they were feeling and describe some of the risks around them in a way that was great for them at their level.

It was not just children who were reaching out to Kids Helpline, it was also parents who were putting their children onto the line for additional support. Kids as young as five were engaging with Kids Helpline. They are an amazing service. As I said, they are still picking up a massive load from the impacts of lockdowns and restrictions on children in Victoria. We are seeing some COVID funding cut at the end of this month—$500 000 in additional funding that was provided to them. I would love to see the government see what work they are still doing in the community to deal with that ongoing impact of Labor’s lockdowns and restrictions and to provide ongoing funding for them because they are a vital service that can adapt and connect with children when a lot of other face-to-face services put barriers in place inadvertently. If you are a kid, it is really hard to make it to the nearest Headspace service if your parents do not know what you are doing, because you have to organise transport there. My electorate of Lowan is a rural electorate. There are often not buses that connect in. It is nearly impossible unless you are speaking to an adult, and sometimes the adult that you have to rely on to transport you to those types of appointments is the person who is putting pressure on you or being violent and putting you in an unsafe situation, so it is really important we support those services that engage with our children and support our children in safe and accessible ways.

It is concerning that there are these 2500 vulnerable children who are unallocated cases, because cases that are unallocated are sitting in the system, and they can be sitting in the system for an extraordinarily long period of time. We know that some of this backlog will be simply due to the impact of the restrictions, which blocked child protection workers from going into homes. I just want to make it very, very clear that this is not a criticism at all of child protection workers, because they work in an extraordinarily difficult space. They do a fabulous job. It must be so emotionally draining to see children in those scenarios, but they need to be provided the additional support to make sure that they can do their job well and not feel like they are just overwhelmed and sinking in an abundance of demands on their services and their time. If I was a child protection worker, I know I would find it overwhelming to think that there are 2500 children waiting to be allocated to workers. That pressure on the child protection workers from not being able to handle that load because they have not been resourced to do so must be enormously difficult, so I do greatly appreciate all of the work that they do, not just during lockdowns and restrictions but at any time, because the work that they do can turn children’s lives around and put them—

Mr Newbury interjected.

Ms KEALY: Yes, it can. Absolutely, member for Brighton—it can save their lives. Certainly that is something that is enormously worthy and should be supported, and they should be more supported. It is deeply concerning that unprecedented numbers of young people known to child protection have died in this term of government. More than half of those children who have tragically died had not been allocated a child protection worker. The minister knows that there are vulnerable children currently in dangerous and at-risk situations who do not have a case manager. It is time for the minister to accept that more children deserve to be and should be protected, and that is something I absolutely stand by and urge the government to take immediate note of. That is why, while we support this bill, we certainly also encourage the government to reconsider going back to the additional legislative changes that were included in the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021 that came through this place last year and is sitting in the upper house just waiting to be debated and passed—because the numbers are there to pass that legislation.

There are particular elements of the bill that was passed here in 2021 which have been overlooked, and I would like to go through those elements, in particular the Home Stretch program, that were outlined in the previous legislation. The Home Stretch program has always had bipartisan backing and is a fabulous service, launched by Georgie Crozier in the other place. It has done an amazing job of ensuring that children, when heading towards that age of 18 and heading out of care, are not just abandoned and not supported. It actually makes sure that we close the loop in the transition between when you are in a care environment and then being out in the big wide world by yourself. That is a really important transition, when so many children can fall through the gaps because they still may be suffering trauma and they still may need ongoing supports around trauma they have experienced in the past. There still can be additional supports that those individuals require. After we have gotten a vulnerable child into a safe environment it is just not acceptable that they fall out of the program simply because they tick over a number in their age. So I would strongly encourage the government to reconsider the bill that is currently in the upper house, or alternatively, if this is going to be pulled apart into three separate pieces of legislation, do that with utmost priority. We have seen one of three parts come through today, but it is really important that all three elements of that original bill come through the Parliament. As we say, it has got full Liberal-National support. We want to see that in play as soon as possible, because we want to be able to protect every single child in Victoria, particularly those that are most vulnerable.

The original bill that went through this place in 2021 was supported by the Liberals and Nationals and sought to hand greater powers to Indigenous-led organisations, which is being replicated through the bill before us today. It provided a legislative framework for extended care; provided services to young people exiting out of home care beyond the age of 18—or the Home Stretch program, as I referred to earlier; and enhanced the ability of staff from the community sector organisations to attend with child protection workers in order to seek to ensure vulnerable children receive case management support. So the bill assisted in addressing some of the issues that we have identified recently, like the 2500 vulnerable children that remain unallocated cases in the state of Victoria.

I think all of these changes have extraordinary merit in the state of Victoria. It is something that clearly was identified by the government previous to 2021, because it would not have made it into drafted legislation if it had not been identified by the sector and by the department as an area that needed legislative change to make sure vulnerable children were made more safe. So I really do encourage the government. While it is good we are seeing some progress, I do not want to see this part of the legislation again stalled. We have seen that iteration of the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021 stalled for far too long. It was in October last year that it came through the Legislative Assembly. It has been sitting in the upper house since then, and it really is imperative that those three key elements that were raised in that original bill are passed through both chambers and are enabled and legislated to become law, because those three changes will create enormous changes to support Victoria’s most vulnerable children.

While we absolutely support this legislation that is before us today, there are areas that can be improved upon. There is more work to be done. We have stalled for far too long, and I do urge the government not to stall any longer, because it is simply unacceptable to have so many children dying in care in Victoria. We have not seen an improvement to the rates under the Andrews Labor government. We still have one in 10 Aboriginal children in care, and they are dying in care. It is not acceptable in the state of Victoria. We have solutions that have been in front of the Parliament for almost a year now. It is time to act and not just talk about what we might do. It is beyond the time for media releases. It is time to make these legislative changes that have the full support of the Liberal-Nationals; I assume they have the full support of the Labor government. You have the numbers to make this a law sooner rather than later. Please go back to the upper house and bring the bill on. We will debate it, it will be passed and it will provide safer and more protection for Victoria’s most vulnerable children. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr J BULL (Sunbury) (15:26): I am very pleased to have the opportunity this afternoon to contribute on the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022. This is of course a significant piece of legislation that goes to fairness, that goes to the care of some of the most vulnerable within our community and that builds upon the acknowledgement, the recognition, the admission that we all have a collective responsibility to do far more in this space.

Yesterday was a historic and significant day within the Parliament and a historic and significant day within our state. It was a day that will not be forgotten, I am sure, by all members of this place and a day that should signal to the rest of the country that Victoria is indeed committed to treaty with our First Nations people. This bill covers a range of matters that I will go to shortly, but I do want to take the opportunity in my contribution this afternoon to acknowledge all of those that were with us yesterday from the First Peoples’ Assembly and of course all of those that were tuning in from around the state and around the country. We acknowledge and thank the assembly co-chairs, Aunty Geraldine Atkinson and Marcus Stewart, who spoke personally, powerfully, within this house to members of this house. The presence of the First Peoples’ Assembly is indeed recognised as the beginning of a new pathway that acknowledges the pain, the trauma and the suffering of our First Nations people. As I mentioned, I will go to many of the specifics of the changes or amendments contained within this piece of legislation very shortly, but I do want to take this opportunity, because I know that many members did not get the opportunity to speak on the legislation yesterday, to thank them and acknowledge all of the work that was done but to also express my unreserved, deepest sympathy, apology and condolences to those that have been harmed, traumatised and affected by decades of historic injustice.

This legislation before the house, the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022, is about making sure there are provisions put in place by the state because we know—the evidence is clear—that the single biggest factor in improving health and social outcomes for Aboriginal people is achieved through Aboriginal self-determination. The bill provides significant reform, opportunities to achieve self-determination and self-management for Aboriginal people and strengthens provisions that uphold the importance of culture for the safety of Aboriginal children. We recognise that Aboriginal people are best placed to lead and inform responses for Aboriginal children and families. We also recognise that Aboriginal people have the strengths and the right to lead that change for their children. We heard so much about that yesterday, and I think as we move forward together it is important to continually maintain that and ensure that it is at the forefront of our collective minds.

We know of course that the bill progresses those key commitments and a priority strategic direction under the Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement of 2018. At the heart of the agreement is a commitment to the reduction of the over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection and alternative care. We are going to achieve that by enabling the advancement of Aboriginal models of care and transferring decision-making of Aboriginal children to Aboriginal community controlled organisations. There is a range of different measures that I do want to reference within the legislation, but I do want to go to the specific amendments that are contained within the bill.

This legislation amends the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to further embed the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in the legislative framework for children and family services by introducing an Aboriginal statement of recognition and accompanying binding recognition principles enabling the effective functioning of Aboriginal children in Aboriginal care and enabling the Children’s Court rules to delegate the powers to a judicial registrar; amends the Health Services Act 1988 and the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 to introduce a statement of recognition and non-binding principles to further Aboriginal self-determination in the health system; further amends the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 to address those critical regulatory gaps in the reportable conduct scheme; amends the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to provide for the necessary transitional provisions required to support the commencement of the new social services regulator and the worker and carer exclusion scheme; and finally, amends the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 to ensure the Commission for Children and Young People can advocate on behalf of children and young people in the child protection and care systems. We know that those amendments are designed and take some significant steps to ensure that some of those that are the most vulnerable within our community have the support and have the recognition and the guidance around them that we know is fundamentally important for not just support, safety and care but of course for—and critically—child protection.

We know that through the statement of recognition, which is to be inserted in the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, which I mentioned, the bill acknowledges the truth in our history regarding some of those child protection policies. We of course know through the work that is being done right across government that so many of these injustices have occurred over many, many decades, and many of those were spoken about so powerfully in this house just yesterday, and we know that collectively we need to continue to work with our First Peoples to ensure that we are always taking those critical steps to listen, to learn and to go through a process whereby we are supporting the outcomes for our First Nations people as best as we possibly can to ensure that every single person within this state has access to those opportunities that they are rightfully entitled to.

I am conscious of time and only having a couple of minutes left on the clock, but I did want to take the opportunity to read into Hansard some of the Uluru Statement from the Heart which I think goes to some of the critical elements within this bill but also some of those steps that were taken yesterday. The statement from the heart reads:

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

As we take the opportunity to consider the legislation that is before the house this afternoon, and I know that there are a number of speakers certainly from this side of the house that wish to make important contributions on this bill, we do so with the knowledge and with the recognition and the understanding that given the many injustices that not only were spoken about yesterday but have been spoken about by our collective community for many, many years, there is an understanding, a recognition and an acknowledgement that far more needs to be done.

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work that has gone into bringing this piece of legislation before the house—a bill that will make some important changes—and most importantly the recognition that we as a state, we as a society, we as a community and importantly this Andrews Labor government will continue to work with those within our community that need the support, that deserve the support and that should have the opportunity for a safe environment and for care and to be able to reach their full potential, and with those comments I commend the bill to the house.

Ms SULEYMAN (St Albans) (15:36): I rise today to make a contribution on the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022, and I echo the sentiments made by my fellow colleague the member for Sunbury. What a day it was yesterday, a historic day for this place and for the Victorian community, where we saw the smoking ceremony on the steps of Parliament, and of course we thank truly the First Peoples’ Assembly co-chairs Aunty Geraldine Atkinson and Marcus Stewart for their beautiful contributions in addressing this place and all members of the First Peoples’ Assembly for all their hard work. I also begin by putting forward my condolence for any sufferings of the past, any traumas of the past, following in the footsteps of the member for Sunbury.

But today, again, we are on the footsteps of a historic change. Not only will this legislation change, but it will also change many lives. We know that today Aboriginal children are over-represented in out-of-home care across this country. There is no question of the government’s commitment to facilitating solutions and most importantly decreasing this national over-representation. We know that there are solutions. And yesterday, that was a first step. Today we begin by acting and getting things done. These are difficult and challenging, but we are here today, and our government has never shied away from the difficult and challenging issues.

When Aboriginal children have previously had contact with the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program, reunification with families nearly doubled from 11 per cent to 22 per cent. These are examples of successful reunification that show what can be achieved. Our government is committed to sharing more of these stories and of course delivering, as we have seen, over $55 million over four years to expand the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program. In a national first, $11 million will be set aside for an Aboriginal response to protective intervention.

This bill seeks to cement procedural change that has been funded by further enshrining a commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in law. Aboriginal representatives are best placed not only to inform but to lead responses for Aboriginal children and their families and their communities, and we heard that yesterday. The Andrews Labor government and the Victorian Aboriginal community share in that aspiration—the aspiration to see increased Aboriginal decision-making for services in the Victorian Aboriginal community, and this includes greater control of planning and administration in services. I mean, what is better, as we heard yesterday, than people actually taking control and making decisions that affect their lives. There is no other place in this state for systems that do promote active and open involvement from the Indigenous leaders in their children’s welfare. This is so critical in addressing the trauma of First Nations peoples.

A key part of this bill is introducing the Aboriginal statement of recognition, and this statement of recognition will be given prominence by the decision-makers under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005. This statement was delivered most importantly in partnership with Aboriginal leadership and stakeholders. Now, the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program is self-determination in action, and it is Aboriginal leadership in action. Through the program, Aboriginal leaders and community members are central to making those decisions that impact them the most and providing key and culturally grounded support for their communities. We know the best care available to Aboriginal children is in their own community. Self-determination means power handed back to communities that are capable, that are able to articulate the concerns and goals and aspirations of their communities. The promise this bill holds is far from an empty one, and with it we give power to the Aboriginal community to act with authority and empathy.

This bill streamlines the authorisation process of Aboriginal agencies who provide cultural support through the investigation phase of protection orders. This means that Aboriginal leadership and representation will now be given the access they need to advise and supervise. The ability and the authority to access key information is critical to the caretaking of their children. Aboriginal agencies work alongside Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care and are engaged to consult on child protection. They can give access to information about a case and key issues. Specifically this bill allows access to all child protection records and those currently held in child protection client relationship information systems by Aboriginal agencies under section 18 of the act. I truly believe that the changes that this government is putting forward will benefit children along their path and long into the future. This is a chance to make changes that will promote the cultural wellbeing of our youngest generation, and our government is seizing this—for the prosperity, for the future.

Today I also want to speak on another amendment, one to the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005, which is the reportable conduct scheme in this bill. This amendment is important to my community. As everybody would know, the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital is in the heart of the electorate of St Albans, and it holds a very special place for the community of St Albans. This hospital sees thousands of babies and a lot of expectant mums coming through the doors. What a tremendous job in the last two years. Through the global crisis we have seen our healthcare heroes at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital continue their great work. I always hear such great compliments from mums on the level of service, the level of care and the support they receive from our fantastic staff at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. So this bill is important to the hospital and to children’s welfare. We will always set out to protect children from harm and ensure that any allegations of abuse are reported and vigorously investigated.

This bill is very important. We have already heard from the member for Sunbury. I think what really is important, and what really touched me yesterday, was the contribution made by the member for Geelong. She is in the chamber here, and I thank her for sharing her story with us all. This is so important. It is about giving power back to the hands of Victoria’s First Nations communities. It is about protecting and caring for our First Nations children. We owe that to every child in Victoria as lawmakers.

We have seen this week, as I said, such a beautiful contribution from the member for Geelong. But we also saw, in a historic first for this state, the Treaty Authority and how important it is to get this right. Our government is getting on with the job of delivering these important changes. I also want to commend the Minister for Child Protection and Family Services, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and everybody for contributing to this bill. This is a bill that we will look back on in the future and see the changes and how this has benefited the whole community. Most importantly, I commend the bill to the house and wish it a speedy passage.

Mr McGHIE (Melton) (15:45): I rise today to contribute to the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I do so on the lands of the Wurundjeri people, the traditional owners of the land that Parliament is built on. I would like to acknowledge them and their ancestors past, present and emerging as I did not get an opportunity yesterday to contribute to the Treaty Authority and Other Treaty Elements Bill 2022, which was unfortunate. But I do want to acknowledge the First Peoples’ Assembly from yesterday. I also wish to acknowledge the great contributions by many, many members, but in particular—and the member for St Albans alluded to it—the contribution by the member for Geelong. It was an amazing contribution. I know she is in the house at the moment, and I thank her for that wonderful contribution.

This bill seeks to amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to further embed the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in the legislative framework for children and family services. It does this by introducing an Aboriginal statement of recognition and accompanying binding recognition principles. It enables the effective functioning of Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care, and it amends the Children’s Court rules to delegate powers to a judicial registrar. This bill also seeks to amend the Health Services Act 1988 and the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 to introduce a statement of recognition and non-binding principles to further Aboriginal self-determination in the health system. I am also pleased that the opposition, those opposite, support this bill, and I am really pleased that we are a collective on such an important bill.

Further changes will be made to the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 to address critical regulatory gaps in the reportable conduct scheme; the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to provide for the necessary transitional provisions required to support the commencement of the new Social Services Regulator and the worker and carer exclusion scheme; and the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 to ensure the Commission for Children and Young People can advocate on behalf of children and young people in the child protection and care systems.

This is the right time to introduce these amendments, with yesterday’s introduction of that fantastic bill, the treaty bill. We have a lot to learn and still even further journeys to go on in the work needed for reconciliation and for treaty. A key feature in this legislation, along with treaty, is the need for recognition of self-determination. As a Western society we have done poorly in addressing this. Even this year I have had discussions with councils who want to advance Aboriginal services but have not even spoken to the local Aboriginal groups about their plans. We must change our outlook when we try to solve problems like closing the gap without asking those most affected by this disparity what they want.

Self-determination needs to be the first thought when all levels of government seek to make policy or address concerns for Aboriginal communities. I am proud to be part of a government that has started the process and introduced legislation like we saw yesterday and this legislation today, albeit it should probably have been done a long time ago. We need to walk towards reconciliation, and legislation like we have seen in this Parliament this week is the start of that journey. The evidence is clear that the single biggest factor in improving health and social outcomes for Aboriginal people is achieved through Aboriginal self-determination. This bill provides significant reform opportunities to achieve self-determination and self-management for Aboriginal people and to strengthen provisions that uphold the importance of culture for the safety of Aboriginal children.

We recognise that Aboriginal people are best placed to lead and inform responses for Aboriginal children and families, and we also recognise that Aboriginal people have the strength and the right to lead that change for their own children. This bill reinforces the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in health and child protection systems. It also acknowledges the importance of culturally safe and appropriately resourced services to meet the health and wellbeing needs of Aboriginal people right across Victoria.

It also progresses the key commitments and priority strategic directions under the Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement of 2018. At the heart of that agreement is a commitment to a reduction in the over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection and other alternative care, and we are going to achieve that by enabling the advancement of Aboriginal models of care and transferring decision-making for Aboriginal children to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. This bill is an important part of achieving that vision. It is an important step in our plan to meet the Closing the Gap national agreement target to reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal children in care by 45 per cent by 2031. In particular this bill advances the objective of eliminating the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in care by increasing Aboriginal care, guardianship and management of Aboriginal children and young people in care and also by increasing family reunification for Aboriginal children and young people in care.

In the health sector the bill progresses a major priority of the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Partnership Forum by enshrining commitments to Aboriginal self-determination in our health legislation. It also progresses the government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination as set out in the Victorian Government Self-Determination Reform Framework. Through this bill this Parliament will specifically acknowledge Victoria’s treaty process and our shared aspiration to achieve increased autonomy and Aboriginal decision-making. This includes greater control of planning, funding and administration of services, including through self-determined Aboriginal representative bodies established through treaty. Through this we in the government will make clear our commitment to treaty and the reform work currently underway.

This bill aims to reduce Aboriginal over-representation in the child protection system, supporting the commitments of the Wungurilwil agreement, the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework. It supports the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework through government working in partnership, and we all know that if you work in partnership you get much better outcomes, so we want to work in partnership with the Aboriginal people to meet the goal that Aboriginal children are raised by their own Aboriginal families.

In recognition of the historic importance of the statement of recognition and its importance for Aboriginal people, it is intended that it will be given prominence to decision-makers under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 by placing it up-front in the new part of the act. The bill recognises the critical role connection to culture and family plays in the development of Aboriginal children and in protecting them from harm and that this must be recognised, understood and considered from the outset of engagement with the child protection system. This bill is an acknowledgement that Aboriginal children achieve better outcomes and the over-representation of Aboriginal children in care is reduced when Aboriginal people and organisations are involved in making those decisions for Aboriginal children.

Across many commonwealth countries there has been a trend to acknowledge the harm successive governments have caused to local Indigenous communities, and many other jurisdictions have been working towards addressing these wrongs for many years. It was pleasing that with the change of federal government one of the first things Prime Minister Albanese addressed in his speech on election night was the need for the federal government to listen and take action in righting the wrongs of the past. The federal government is already making changes, with New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern being the first foreign leader to visit the new Prime Minister. It was an acknowledgement that governments could share notes on addressing injustices for Indigenous communities, and this is important, whilst knowing that each community is unique not just internationally but also often within clans and local communities. We cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach. This is where self-determination is vital and is working towards successful outcomes.

As I mentioned earlier, it is a shame that it has taken so long to get to this point, but with this Andrews Labor government and now a more progressive federal Albanese government, it is time to take real action. The journey together has begun. I commit as the member for Melton and the Parliamentary Secretary for Health to walk on that journey with Aboriginal communities and to support them and assist them as much as we possibly can. I support this legislation. I commend this bill to the house, and I thank the minister for bringing this legislation to the house.

Mr KENNEDY (Hawthorn) (15:55): It gives me pleasure to speak on the Education Legislation Amendment (Adult and Community Education and Other Matters) Bill 2022. This is a bill that effectively continues the reform and modernisation of our education system. What I want to say today is under just a few headings: adult education; education; education in Hawthorn, one of the leaders in education; some details about the bill; and then the linchpin that makes it all possible, teachers. So let us start with adult education. As clichéd as it sounds, I feel as though I have the weight of my experience to lean on when I say that education is truly a lifelong journey. Am I speaking on the right bill?

A member: We’re on something else. We’re doing a different bill.

Mr KENNEDY: Oh, sorry. I do apologise. I have already given this.

A member interjected.

Mr KENNEDY: I know! It was one of the great speeches, and soon will be a film and a musical.

However, here I am. It gives me pleasure to speak on the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022. This is a bill that will amend multiple acts in order to strengthen the regulatory framework around Aboriginal self-determination in Victoria. I want to make some overall comments, then say something specific to Hawthorn and Victoria, and then my final words will be on Indigenous reconciliation.

The evidence is clear that if you want to improve health and social outcomes for Aboriginal people, Aboriginal self-determination should be implemented. This bill reforms several areas of law to achieve this goal and further improves provisions that uphold the importance of culture for the safety of Aboriginal children. It is a straightforward principle that Aboriginal people are the best placed to lead and inform responses about Aboriginal children and families. The bill itself marks considerable progress in key commitments under the Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement of 2018. This agreement is rooted in a commitment to reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection and alternative care. This is going to be done through advancing Aboriginal models of care and transferring decision-making for Aboriginal children to Aboriginal community controlled organisations. It also aids us in our attempts to close the gap and reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal children in care by 45 per cent by 2031.

More than this, this bill will also enshrine Aboriginal self-determination in health legislation. It will also specifically acknowledge the Victorian treaty process, as well as our shared goal of increased autonomy and Aboriginal decision-making. One of the key changes contained within this bill is how it provides critical enabling functions to support the expansion of the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program. This program allows Aboriginal agencies to make decisions and provide culturally grounded support for Aboriginal families. This is another case of self-determination in action, and it is working.

Now to come to Hawthorn, the traditional owners in my electorate of Hawthorn are the Wurundjeri Willum people. I would like to thank their council for being incredibly supportive of our Bills Street public housing development, as it is actually on their land. Indeed I warmly welcome legislation like this, and I have found the people of Hawthorn to be, by and large, supportive of reconciliation. The Victorian Closing the Gap implementation plan is built upon genuine collaboration with our First Nations groups and wider Aboriginal community. It is our duty as a government to do everything in our power to assist Aboriginal communities in being drivers of genuine change. That is why I am proud of this legislation—because it represents our approach of prioritising self-determined solutions, solutions that promote culture and community as the cornerstones of closing this gap.

Turning now to Victoria, every jurisdiction in Australia, including Victoria, has a significant over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. We are committed to reducing this over-representation, with the tripartite agreement between the Aboriginal community, the Victorian government and community organisations. In the 2020–21 Victorian state budget we committed over $55.8 million over four years to continue and expand the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care program. This program works, with Aboriginal children being reunified with families in 22 per cent of cases under this program, compared to 11.1 per cent when managed by the department’s child protection practitioners in areas where Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care is operating. This work is not easy, but it has been stirring to see the collective efforts of everyone involved in doing everything possible to meet these targets and ultimately improve outcomes for our First Nations people.

I have been thrilled to see the work in this vital area undertaken at Swinburne University, with the Moondani Toombadool Centre and the 2023 reconciliation action plan. The recent development of a new part of the AD building will bring together staff and students, creating a new space for First Nations people to build a strong community in both Swinburne and Hawthorn. I have been consistently impressed by the work Swinburne has done in this area and was glad to see them support the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Concluding then on Indigenous reconciliation in general, in the Closing the Gap strategy we are guided by the overarching belief that when our First Nations people have a voice in the design of policies and programs that affect them, those policies and programs achieve better outcomes. It is going to take the combined efforts of local, state and federal governments to make serious progress in this area. I am heartened by the commitment of the new Albanese Labor government to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and I fully reject the dogma of the conservatives opposed to the Uluru statement. Our First Nations people should have a voice; it is as simple as that. We, as a government, must strive to keep working with our First Nations communities to help drive change and to close the gap. More than 50 different stakeholder groups participated in consultation for this bill, signifying our commitment to a broad legislative process. There is no getting around the fact that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection is a symptom of a significant gap between our outcomes for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people across the socio-economic indicators. That is why we are passing this legislation. It is why we will continue to pass legislation—because we are committed to closing the gap.

There is no doubting that this is a gap created by past policies, that intergenerational trauma exists and that it was once deliberate government policy in this country to disconnect Indigenous Australians from their culture, from their country and from their families. I am proud of the Indigenous heritage of Hawthorn, Victoria and Australia. I earnestly believe that the commitment of our new Prime Minister and the Australian Labor Party to the Uluru Statement from the Heart has heralded a new era in Australia’s relationship with First Nations people. We simply cannot allow children to continue to be separated from their families at high rates and so many Indigenous youths to be languishing in detention centres. For these reasons I commend the bill to the house.

Mr TAK (Clarinda) (16:05): I too would like to join the member for Hawthorn in acknowledging the Wurundjeri people as traditional owners of the land that Parliament House is built on, the Boon Wurrung people as the traditional people of the south-east and all First Peoples here, and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and future.

I am delighted to rise today to speak on the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022. It is another important bill, with its overall objective to further embed the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in the legislative framework and update the Children’s Court, the reportable conduct scheme, social services regulations and Commission for Children and Young People advocacy functions.

Once again I would just like also to concur with the member for Hawthorn in saying that this week has been a historic week here in Parliament. To have heard the contributions made by co-chairs Aunty Geraldine Atkinson and Marcus Stewart in this place was such an honour. What is more important is to be able to hear firsthand the contributions made in this house about self-determination for Aboriginal Victorians and what it means going forward, especially the First Peoples’ Assembly, and to hear about what the establishment of the Treaty Authority means going forward. That process is changing the cultural landscape of Victoria. It is moving us all towards a better understanding of our identity, our history and our future. And that future is one where First Nations communities have autonomy, power and self-determination. It is very exciting, and I am very proud and honoured to have witnessed that process yesterday here in this place.

I am also proud to make a contribution here today on this bill, one that will progress key commitments and priority strategic directions under the Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement 2018. The Wungurilwil Gapgapduir, which means ‘strong families’ in Latji Latji, is a three-party agreement between the Aboriginal community, the Victorian government and community service organisations. It outlines a strategic direction to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care by building their connection to culture, country and community. It is a landmark partnership, one that has been developed in consultation with the Aboriginal community as well as with the input of Aboriginal services and key mainstream child service organisations. The action plan details steps which the sector needs to take in addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in the child protection and out-of-home care system.

The overarching principle of the agreement is self-determination. It involves governments and mainstream organisations relinquishing power, control and resources to Aboriginal organisations. We see that in the establishment of the Treaty Authority, an organisation led by First Peoples that will sit completely outside of the usual government bureaucracy and will not report to a government minister, an organisation grounded in First Peoples’ culture, lore and law, appointed by an independent panel, not government, and also funded outside the usual political cycles and accountable to community. We see that overarching principle here again.

As mentioned, the bill progresses key commitments and priority strategic directions under the Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement of 2018. This will also provide the foundations for Victoria’s plan to meet the National Agreement on Closing the Gap target to reduce the rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in care by 45 per cent by 2031. The 2018 agreement notes that:

…the rate of Aboriginal child removal in Victoria now exceeds that seen during the Stolen Generation era. The implications for this generation of Aboriginal children are potentially as profound as the Stolen Generation—lost culture, lost family, lost community.

We need to do better. The bill will make a host of amendments across multiple acts. It will amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, firstly. to introduce a statement of recognition and associated principles. The Aboriginal statement of recognition is significant because it acknowledges the role that the child protection system has played in the dispossession, colonisation and assimilation of Aboriginal people, in particular through the separation of Aboriginal children from their family, culture, country and friends. As we have heard, Aboriginal people are 22 times more likely than non-Aboriginal people in Victoria to be in out-of-home care, so it is extremely important that Parliament acknowledges these wrongs and commits to work with the Aboriginal community to ensure this mistake never happens again.

This is a historically significant statement that is given prominence in decisions made under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 by placing it at the front of the act, providing an Aboriginal lens through which to read all provisions in the act. Further amendments will provide critical enablers to support Aboriginal-led models of care and enable the Children’s Court to make rules that enable certain powers of a magistrate or registrar to be exercised by a judicial registrar. These are all very important changes.

The bill also recognises the government’s commitment, as outlined in the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework, to work in partnership with Aboriginal people to achieve objectives of the framework under goal 2: ‘Aboriginal children are raised by Aboriginal families’. Further, the bill will progress a key reform priority of the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Partnership Forum to enshrine commitments to Aboriginal self-determination in the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 1988 and the Health Services Act 1988 for the first time. The amendments also align with Victoria’s commitment to the national agreement outcomes of shared decision-making and building the community-controlled sector. Enshrining these commitments in the legislation also aligns with the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination as set out in both the Victorian Self-Determination Reform Framework and the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2018–2023.

Victoria is leading the way on Aboriginal self-determination, leading the nation with the treaty process, and again here we are making positive and important changes when it comes to ensuring the safety and protection of vulnerable Aboriginal children and young people. We are squarely focused on addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in out-of-home care and progressing self-determination for Aboriginal people through a range of initiatives. We have committed to reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the care system by 45 per cent by 2031 as a signatory of the Closing the Gap national agreement.

And we will continue to invest and legislate like we are doing here today in this place to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in child protection and out-of-home care. We need to do better, and we will do better. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (16:15): It is always fantastic to follow on from the member for Clarinda, who is so eloquent in speaking on a bill such as this, which is quite historic. What a week it has been. Indeed last night the legislation to ban the swastika in settings other than where it is required was passed, which was quite a historic thing to see. Being in this house and standing here beside our First Nations people yesterday—I woke up this morning still buoyed by that.

We know that the Closing the Gap targets have barely moved. We know that since the federal government introduced those in 2018 we have been working hard, as a state and federally, to make sure we close those gaps, but it has not been working. It has been 14 years, and some of those gaps have even got wider. I think what it comes down to is essentially the work that has been done over the past few years by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, her predecessors in that ministerial portfolio and the elected people of the First Peoples’ Assembly, who have done the absolute hard yards to make a structure for truth telling and then treaty.

What they did yesterday was they invited us—I actually think they put their hand out and they said to us, ‘We’ve worked on this. We want treaty as a First Nations people, and we want you to stand beside us while we hear the truth and walk with us on the journey to treaty’. I think that is what everybody in the chamber—well, 99 per cent of the people in the chamber—want. I think that if you do not agree that you would give our First Nations people that respect, well, then you are probably no better than the people that were the colonisers, who did not listen, who did not walk beside, who did not take action to be in a relationship with those First People in the first place.

This bill to me is another raft. It is another way we can stand next to our First Nations people by saying that we will make significant progress on embedding Aboriginal self-determination in the laws of our state. In doing that, this bill makes a number of changes to increase the effectiveness of Victoria’s legislative system, and that is a very tangible step in empowering and supporting Victoria’s Aboriginal community to improve outcomes for children and families and improve the health of our overall community. I want to give a huge shout-out to First Peoples Health and Wellbeing, who operate in my area of Frankston and Thomastown too. They have done the absolute hard yards through COVID, and they run an amazing clinic. Their books are almost full. We helped them in a few ways, but the self-determination evident in even the way that group of people and that CEO operate is amazing, and I think that is what is going to make a shift in those Closing the Gap targets.

With our plan, obviously in 2018 we had the Aboriginal children and families agreement established, a landmark partnership between the Aboriginal community, the government and the child and family services sector, and we committed to better outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people. This is the foundation of Victoria’s plan to meet the National Agreement on Closing the Gap target to reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal young people in care by 45 per cent by 2031. At the heart of this agreement is self-determination for First Nations people. Without First Nations people in the driver’s seat, without those First Nations people actually deciding on their fate, deciding on matters that affect them and their families, we will not meet these targets. So this is the change. For 14 years we have seen Closing the Gap targets not actually closing up. Now we have taken that huge step, in partnership, for self-determination. This is us, yesterday and today, putting through Parliament the legal framework to make sure that our First Nations people have the power, they have the law and they have the agency to ensure that they can do what they need to do in their community.

Now, to achieve these goals essentially the bill has three objectives: to eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in care; to increase Aboriginal care, guardianship and management of Aboriginal children and young people in care; and to increase family reunification for Aboriginal children and young people in care. I do not think anyone is ever going to argue that those are not principles that we need to see rolled out and see tangible benefits from.

To achieve these goals the bill focuses on some key objectives. We have heard some people in this chamber talk about some granular aspects of those clauses; I am just going to go through a few of them that I think are really important and that I know my community would be very appreciative of, to know that our government has put this law in place to steer things in this direction—and, again, in partnership with our First Peoples. One of the objectives is embedding the Victorian government’s commitment to Aboriginal self-determination in the legislative framework for children and family services and providing critical enablers to support Aboriginal-led models of care, and as we have just spoken about, the First Peoples Health and Wellbeing is one of those agencies, and it is amazing.

One of the other objectives is to advance Aboriginal self-determination to improve health outcomes and delivery of health services, recognising the key role of the Aboriginal health sector in the delivery of Aboriginal health services and supporting healing, acknowledging trauma and providing a foundation for future reform. Another is also amending a few other things, like the reportable conduct scheme to address a critical regulatory gap impacting the effectiveness of the scheme. Also another objective is to provide the necessary transitional provisions to support the new Social Services Regulator and the worker and carer exclusion scheme, which of course is national and is very important. Just summing up those objectives, we are going to ensure that the Commission for Children and Young People can advocate for children and young people and support them in understanding and exercising their right to raise issues of concern and enable the Children’s Court of Victoria to make rules that delegate certain powers of a registrar or a magistrate to a judicial registrar.

All this is about one aim, and that is self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—to be on the path to actually create the vision of their future, to enable them to do what they have tried to do for so many years where traditionally our traditional owners have traditionally not been listened to in a lot of ways. They know what is best for them, so this is giving the power to them, and I think it is amazing that we were here yesterday and we are today in this Parliament and we have literally seen the best of this Parliament. We have seen people speak up—people who have educated themselves a lot of the time on the facts and on what some would say overly whitewashed history. As I spoke about yesterday—people of my generation, sometimes the only thing they learned about Australia’s history was the 200 years of white occupation and the didgeridoo, we know nothing more—I was just really buoyed by the amount of people in this chamber that knew and had read and had spoken to our traditional owners and actually knew the history. They knew that there were very bad things that went on. They knew that we have some traditional owner groups that we should be very proud of and traditional owners with legendary stories, like Pemulwuy, Cooper—the list goes on.

Part of what we are doing here today in passing this law is making sure that in 20 years we are not back here saying that we need to pass legislation to ensure that we are closing these gaps. There is a line in the sand, and it has to happen somewhere, and I think it did yesterday. I think we showed we are actually listening to people who want to be in charge of their own fate. They know what they want, they know how to fix some of their problems, which have not always been caused by them of course, and today I stand here as a very proud member of the Andrews Labor government once again passing legislation that is changing history to the point where I think in 20 years time we will not see anyone standing up talking about why these gaps are widening, why nothing is actually happening, why people before them did not do anything. We are doing it now, we are doing it today and I commend this bill to the house.

Ms KILKENNY (Carrum) (16:25): In the few minutes I have I would like to rise to speak on this bill, the Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition and Other Matters) Bill 2022. It follows on from yesterday, a historic day in this place, when we heard from Aboriginal Victorians here on the floor about the pressing need for treaty and the need for self-determination. Following on from that Treaty Authority and Other Treaty Elements Bill 2022 yesterday, here we have this bill, another bill that sets out really significant opportunities for reform and for further work towards self-determination and self-management for Aboriginal people.

It is really timely, too. We have such a heartbreaking situation here in Victoria and across Australia as well with the number of Indigenous kids that are in the child protection system, that are in out-of-home care. It is unacceptable, and work needs to be done. As we heard so clearly from Aunty Geri yesterday, that work needs to be driven by Aboriginal Victorians. They need to be the ones who determine how to improve health and social outcomes for themselves. I just want to quote Aunty Geri, who said it so clearly and soundly yesterday. In speaking of Aboriginal Victorians, she said:

Our community knows what is best for our community. It is essential that First Peoples lead this journey—essential because it is both the morally right approach and the most effective approach in achieving the best results.

She continued:

There is no escaping the harsh reality that Aboriginal people have suffered immensely at the hands of the Victorian state. We were driven from our lands, murdered, herded onto reserves, torn apart from our families. We were unfairly targeted and discriminated against for generations, with the disadvantage and injustice compounding over the years. But you know what? We have survived. We survived the concerted attempts to eradicate us and our culture, and it should be of no surprise that many of our people find it hard to place any trust in Parliament or have faith in government systems. Indeed all too often these are still the sources of ongoing injustices.

These are such strong words and words that we must heed here in this place, and the bill before us recognises that and is part of that. This bill finally recognises and understands that Aboriginal people are best placed to lead and inform responses for Aboriginal children and families. We recognise that Aboriginal people, our First People, have the strength but also the right to lead change for their children. That is a really fundamental issue, recognising that they have the right to lead this change—and change we will. The bill before us recognises this. It recognises that more Aboriginal children need to be better supported to be connected to their culture, country and family. Significantly, the bill will introduce an Aboriginal statement of recognition and accompanying binding recognition principles. This is important. They will help to enact policy into practice. They will guide decision-making so that all decision-makers will be supported to approach decisions through an Aboriginal lens. What a cultural shift is this. It is a fundamental change. It sounds obvious, but it is going to require a lot of work, but I know we are going to get there. We are on the path to treaty; we are on the path to self-determination.

I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard in bringing this bill before us here today, particularly with the work on the Aboriginal statement of recognition and the accompanying binding recognition principles. I acknowledge that these have been co-designed with the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance, representing the Aboriginal community controlled organisations, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Rumbalara, Njernda and the department. It is not easy work, but we are certainly heartened by the collective efforts of everyone who has been part of this. I commend the bill.

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (16:30): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.