SNAICC BRIEFING/POLICY PAPERS
Web edition
(The full Briefing Paper
(pdf) is now available for download. Details at
the bottom of this page)
27
November 2006
Key Commitments Political
Parties Must Make to Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Children and Families (October 2006)
This is a summary
of the pre-election briefing paper prepared by SNAICC to inform
the policy work of all the major political parties in federal parliament.
1. A National Apology
for the Stolen Generations and their families.
A national apology that
acknowledges the harsh injustices of past child removals, and the
ongoing impact of these on the health and happiness of current generations
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
2. Development of an Indigenous Family Support and Parenting Program
Support to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and
family welfare services and child care services to broaden their
service delivery into the family support and parenting areas –
working on prevention and early intervention.
3. Funding for facilitated playgroups for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander children
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playgroups linked to existing
child care, maternal and child health or child and family welfare
services create opportunities for families to access information
and support in relation to child health and development.
4. Development of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing
and Well Being Program
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families affected by the trauma
of previous child removals and family violence require support to
heal and recover. All governments should have a role in this and
the Commonwealth should provide an initial commitment and seek additional
commitments from states and territories.
5. Development and funding of a National Indigenous Child Care Strategy
SNAICC has called for a National Indigenous Child Care Strategy
for many years and was pleased that the Government responded in
2005 by employing consultants to identify the child care needs of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and the barriers
to having these needs met. The immediate child care priorities that
SNAICC wants a strategy to address are to:
- Recognise that the purpose of child care for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander families is more broadly focussed on supporting
children’s development and supporting families to care for
their children and that the current number of Indigenous specific
child care places meets only a small fraction of the need.
- Recognise that multi-functional Indigenous specific child care
is the only appropriate form of child care for many Indigenous
families and that this form of child care needs to be supported
and expanded across the country
- Immediately expand the capacity of current Indigenous specific
child care services
- Immediately establish new multi-functional Indigenous specific
child care services in areas of high need
- Develop a separate Child Care Accreditation process for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander child care services and programs recognising
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to child rearing
and parenting.
6. National Indigenous
Children’s Services Workforce Development Plan
Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander workers in Indigenous child care and child and family
welfare services do not have adequate opportunity or support to
access appropriate accredited training. As a result, Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander services, particularly those in remote
communities, struggle to recruit and retain skilled workers and
meet licensing requirements. Nationally accredited training needs
to be developed and staff within services need to be provided with
adequate support to undertake accredited training modules.
7. Re-funding of the
SNAICC Resource Service (SRS)
SNAICC was granted four
million dollars over four years (2004/05–2007/08) to establish
and manage the SNAICC Resource Service
(SRS). The SRS was funded under the Australian
Government’s National Agenda for Early Childhood and the Stronger
Families and Communities Strategy. SRS projects resource and support
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services to deliver programs
focussed on child abuse prevention, early intervention, family support
and early childhood development.
The SRS is making a real
difference to the quality and relevance of the resources Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander early childhood and child and family
welfare organisations have access to. SRS funding has also enhanced
SNAICC’s capacity across all areas of our operations.
8. Development of national
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander out-of-home care standards
and legislation.
Federal government leadership
is required to develop national standards that ensure that all Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander children who have involvement with state
and territory child protection systems and potentially require out-of-home
care are guaranteed that their rights are consistently protected,
including their right to know their extended family and community
and to cultural and spiritual development as an Aboriginal or Torres
Strait Islanders.
9. National monitoring
of the implementation of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle
The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle has been in place for over
twenty years now but its implementation is inadequate and inconsistent
across the country. The Principle was designed to ensure that Aboriginal
or Torres Strait Islander children who needed to be removed from
home were kept connected to their family, community and culture
to the maximum extent possible; but compliance with the Principle
is very poor in most states and territories.
The priorities included
in the briefing paper reflect the content of SNAICC’s key
policy framework documents, all of which are available on our Briefing
Papers and PUblications page:
- Seven Priorities for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families This
was developed as an outcome of SNAICC’s 2003 'National Conference
Our Future Generations'. This policy statement has been in the
public domain for the past two years and has been circulated widely
by SNAICC
- Achieving
Stable and Strong Out of Home Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Children This Policy Paper outlines SNAICC's
approach to out-of-home care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander children.
- 2007–2009
SNAICC Strategic Plan This plan was recently written
and will be published and circulated widely by SNAICC after the
2006 SNAICC Annual General Meeting in November. It is now available
online.
– by Julian Pocock and Julie Higgins
This summary was originally
published in the November 2006
edition of SNAICC News.
Read the report
of the SNAICC Lobby Trip to Canberra (last October),
for which this Briefing Paper was originally prepared.
Full
Briefing Paper now available
The detailed Briefing
Paper, updated in advance of the 2007 federal election, can be downloaded
here:
Priorities
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children for the Next
Term of Government (92 KB)
List of Attachments
A number of SNAICC documents
are listed as Attachments in the Briefing paper. These are available
from the SNAICC website:
Attachment 1
– SNAICC, 2004, Seven Priorities for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Children and Families
Download
from the SNAICC website here (pdf, 60 KB)
Attachment 2
– SNAICC, 2005, Achieving Stable and Culturally Strong
Out of Home Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children
Download
from the SNAICC website here (pdf, 836 KB)
Attachment 3
– SNAICC, 2006, 2007–2009 SNAICC Strategic Plan
Download
from the SNAICC website here (pdf, 724 KB)
Attachment 4
– SNAICC, 2003, 'Response Paper for the Broadband Redevelopment'
(briefing paper)
Download
from the SNAICC website here (pdf, 80 KB)
< Back to Briefing
Papers
Created 27 November
2006
Updated 29 May 2007
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