Page: 8166
Tabbita Feedlot Cattle Deaths
Mr AMERY (Mount Druitt—Minister for Agriculture, and Minister for Land and Water Conservation) [3.36 p.m.]: I ask the House to give priority to the motion that I gave notice of before question time today. The recent death of 1,250 cattle at a feedlot need Griffith earlier this year, which has been the subject of a number of reviews, will be discussed at the Agricultural Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand meeting to be held later this week. In light of the implications of what occurred near Griffith I ask that the House give priority to my motion rather than the motion given notice of by the Opposition earlier today.
Foster and Substitute Care
Mr HAZZARD (Wakehurst) [3.37 p.m.]: Whilst the Opposition acknowledges that the death of 1,250 cattle is an important issue, we put to the House that it cannot be anywhere near as urgent an issue as the fact that there are 77,000-odd notifications for child abuse and neglect in this State currently, that there are 7,757 children currently in foster care or substitute care in New South Wales, and that there have been three reports in less than six weeks that have condemned this Government in regard to the lack of planning, lack of resourcing, lack of policy, lack of care and lack of interest in those children. This issue is urgent because this House needs to give some directions to the Government, which is totally directionless in relation to foster care and substitute care for children. There have been three reports.
Mr O'Doherty: One was only last week.
Mr HAZZARD: Yes, that report was entitled "Australian Children and Young People in Care: A Report Card Mid Year 2000" and was by the Create Foundation. There were two previous reports by the Community Services Commission. This is the Government's own commission criticising the Government. The commissioner has been scathing about the Minister's lack of activity and the Government's lack of policy. The first report was titled "Forwards, Backwards and Standing Still". Does that not tell us a lot? This Government is going absolutely nowhere in regard to child policy and making a safe environment for children in substitute care.
The second report by the Community Services Commission was called "Voices of Children and Young People in Foster Care". In it children had their say. When one reads what those children said about what they feel about being in substitute care or foster care under this Government's policies, one realises that many of those 7,757 children are lost souls because of the failure of this Government to have any worthwhile policies. This motion is urgent because the House should address the scathing criticisms in the reports. One of those scathing criticisms, contained in the first report to which I referred, relates to a statement by the community services commissioner, who said in regard to Aboriginal children and young people in care:
Most concerningly, a real commitment to tackling these entrenched problems and improving outcomes for children, young people and their families and communities has not been evident. This is despite numerous inquiries and reports, public apologies and promises, continuing evidence of pressing need and the current focus on community consultation with indigenous people.
The Community Services Commissioner is saying that this Government simply does not have any real commitment—the words used by the commissioner—to these children or to improving the outcomes for them. It is urgent that this House have the opportunity to consider what is contained in the three reports and to review what has happened. The Minister for Community Services is absent from the Chamber today. I understand she is sick, and I am sorry about that. However, the debate must proceed today. The Minister for Police is prepared to stand in for the Minister for Community Services. I want to hear, as I am sure the House wants to hear, what the Government will do to turn around the circumstances for the 7,757 children in substitute care. This matter is urgent because even today children are suffering as a result of a lack of effective policies. The reports go on to state that children with disabilities in need of substitute care also are in dire need of appropriate policies and directions from this Government. I quote from one report:
As a group, they have received little attention from the growing focus on the needs and rights of vulnerable children.
The time has come for the House to debate this issue. The Minister for Community Services has avoided making a ministerial statement. She hoped that the reports would not be noticed by the House or by the public. Well, the reports have been noticed, and they are being debated in the public forum. It is time that this House, exercising its leadership role in this State, examined where the Government has failed. It is time this House tried to give the Government some direction, otherwise, it will have no direction. The Minister is incapable of giving policy directions in relation to children in substitute care. She has no idea. She is bereft of policy ideas. Now is the time for the debate to take place.
Question—That the motion for urgent consideration of the honourable member for Mount Druitt be proceeded with—agreed to.