Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Ministers statements: community safety

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (13:50): As Minister for Children, visits to services such as kinders, maternal and child health (MCH) or out-of-home care facilities provide an important opportunity for children, parents and families to speak directly with me about their experiences. Last week I was scheduled to visit a supported family playgroup –

Members interjecting.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: President, I cannot hear myself, so I suspect the chamber cannot hear me either.

The PRESIDENT: Clerk, do you mind resetting the clock? The minister is not being provocative. The minister, to be heard in silence.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: As Minister for Children, visits to services such as kinders, MCH or out-of-home care facilities provide an important opportunity for children, parents and families to speak directly with me about their experiences. Last week I was scheduled to visit a supported family playgroup at the Jindi Family and Community Centre in Mernda to do just that. Supported family playgroups, funded by the Victorian government, provide children, parents and carers with opportunities to learn and grow together through play-based activities.

This was a visit requested by the operator, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and it was a visit I was very much looking forward to, but due to threats from anti-Israel protesters the Brotherhood of St Laurence recommended the visit to the centre be cancelled. According to the Brotherhood, the threats were such that it was concerned about the long-term impacts on kids and parents at the playgroup space being the target of the protest. The Brotherhood of St Laurence advised that parents and carers were concerned about their and their children’s safety and wellbeing.

Threats by anti-Israel protesters to the safety and wellbeing of children and families need to be called out. It is unacceptable on the steps of Parliament. It is unacceptable in a family playgroup. It is unacceptable anywhere, and these are the actions of authoritarian thugs. I hope that all members in this place will condemn protests which pose a threat to the safety and wellbeing of children and families.

I know that the Brotherhood of St Laurence tried to mitigate the threat, proposing extraordinary measures such as employing additional staff and enhanced screening of visitors, and I pay tribute to their staff and their professionalism and dedication to the safety and wellbeing of the community they serve. All these protesters achieved was to rob families, carers and children of their voice and of an opportunity to speak directly to their minister about their experiences.

I will keep visiting services across Victoria, and I refuse to let parents, carers and children be disenfranchised by an aggressive, anti-democratic minority, because children, parents and carers deserve nothing less.