The commitment to, and work on family-led decision making and reform in child protection that has been led by Elizabeth Kikkert and her staff is totally uplifting and hugely welcome by the Canberra Restorative Community Network. Elizabeth's leadership and commitment to affect genuine change in child protection needs the followship of all political parties and their public commitment to legislated family-led decision making for all families. https://canberraliberals.org.au/family-conferences-to-empower-vulnerable-families-and-give-them-hope/
The Legislative Assembly has shown us that they can act in a tripartisan way through the passing on 23 July 2020, of the Coroners Amendment Act while also recognising that a great deal of work still needs to be undertaken to develop a restorative coronial process. We believe that leadership shown by Elizabeth Kikkert to commit to restorative processes through family-led decision making will change outcomes for all our children and families for the better. We must address the issue that Canberra has one of the highest rates of removal of Indigenous children in the country. All children and families must be given a legal entitlement to a restorative process and to a family-led decision-making process before a court process takes over.
The Canberra Restorative Community Network has been working very closely with our Indigenous Elders, Aunty Ros Brown, the United Ngunnawal Elders Council and members of the Elected Body, over many years now, to address the need for family-led decision making when concerns for a child's safety exists. Supported by our local academic community, our international restorative learning community and New Zealand's former Chief Social Worker for Child Protection and Youth Justice, Paul Nixon, we know that restorative approaches in child protection work. The evidence shows that the plans that families make are overwhelmingly accepted by professional child protection workers and by courts. Past practices of child removal are not past - they continue to this very day to the detriment of children, families, child protection workers and leave an intergeneration legacy of trauma. This proposal offers a long overdue breakthrough in current failed practices that do great harm. The Canberra Restorative Community Network, our Elders and families, children, young people, parents, grandparents, midwives, family support workers, health workers and many more Canberrans will welcome these much overdue changes in how we think and act in our child protection space.
Mary Ivec, Convenor, Canberra Restorative Community Network