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September hosts Child Protection Week, running from the 4th to the 10th, where we urge everyone to think deeply about how individuals and governments can better protect the children in our communities. This year’s theme is ‘child protection is everyone’s business’, which is aiming to ensure that all of Queensland’s diverse communities take responsibility for the protection of our young ones.
Over this week we hosted a number of different events all over Queensland – from beautiful Mornington Island all the way down to bustling Brisbane, our teams brought the focus onto child safety.
In Queensland, children as young as 10 can be held criminally responsible and held in prison. Locking up children in prison causes lifelong harm to the child’s growth and development. The evidence is very clear – children who experience being arrested by police and going through the legal process are more likely to develop mental illness, disengage from school, become homeless, and even die prematurely.
However, alternative community programs are working and they help children learn from mistakes and keep them with their families where they belong. Politicians need to redirect funds into services and programs that are proven to work – currently the majority of the youth justice budgets are spent on locking children up and building new prisons. The shocking cost of locking a child up in Australia is $525,000 per annum – this money is much better spent in ways that actually work towards reducing criminality and building better communities.
The #RaiseTheAge team has been urging Queensland’s government to raise the age to at least 14. Please check out their website, as they provide many ways that you can help to raise awareness about this issue and to lobby your local government representatives- because child safety is everyone’s business.
Indigenous Literacy Day, a celebration which raises awareness that literacy in a child’s first language strengthens their culture and their confidence. Building strong foundation in literacy helps kids build context, comprehension and understanding. However, if young ones miss out on this step they will be further disadvantaged throughout life. By Building stronger literacy skills, you help to break the cycle of disadvantage.
Although Indigenous Literacy Day is its own independent day, it falls within Child protection Week. This week isn’t only about making things safer for the kids in our communities, but also helping our kids thrive in life. Reading opens Doors.
During the 2021/22 financial year, QIFVLS was able to provide advice in 243 instances and open 173 cases across Queensland relating to Child Protection matters.
In recognition of Child Protection Week, we would like to highlight these areas of service and how we can help families involved in the Child Safety system across Queensland.
QIFVLS offer legal advice and representation to families involved in the Child Protection system and we strongly encourage family to seek legal advice when Child Safety become involved. This can include: representing you at Court, attending Meetings, assisting with Case Plans and Contact Arrangements. We will also help to progress Reunification.
We acknowledge that being involved with Child Safety can be scary and overwhelming and we want to assist in this process to ensure you understand each step.
QIFVLS have Offices located in Cairns, Thursday Island, Bamaga, Townsville, Mount Isa, Mackay, Rockhampton and Brisbane. Please contact our Office in one of the following ways for help:
As mentioned above, Indigenous Literacy Day, although falling within the week, is independent of Child Protection Week. Their work in focusing attention on the importance of building literacy in a child’s first language is incredibly important.
Books, throughout all of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, are extremely hard to access. Books in Language are even more difficult to find. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is working towards building the literacy of all of Australia’s indigenous children. They operate in over 400 communities by providing books and literacy programs. They have even published 40 books in 11 different languages. Follow the link to see more of the ILFs amazing work.
Watch their YouTube video featuring Jess Mauboy for the 2022 ILD event celebrating language and literacy.
R U OK? This is a day for everyone to pause and ask their family and friends this question which can often feel a bit forced or clumsy, but it is extremely important and is a question that could possibly save a life.
Have a look at the official R U OK website, where they offer advice and tips to be more effective in asking these questions.
This month Thelma Schwartz and Kulumba Kiyingi, our Principal Legal Officer and Senior Policy Officer respectively, gave statements before the Queensland Government’s Inquiry into the Decriminalisation of Certain Public Offenses, and Health and Welfare Responses. QIFVLS had provided a submission to the Inquiry which raised concerns about the current approach that the Queensland Governments takes with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when trying to reduce public offenses.
QIFLVS supports decriminalising the public offences of public intoxication, offensive language and begging in favour of adopting a health response to addressing these behaviours, which have underlying social drivers rooted in structural inequality, homelessness, mental health and disability and family violence. At the Parliamentary Committee Inquiry, QIFVLS advocated for a co-responder model which would see police assisted by a health/allied health professional and a First Nations community member in circumstances when the affected person is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person.
QIFVLS’s submission reflects our clients’ experiences and the matters in which they require assistance. QIFVLS understands that the police work in challenging circumstances, often in under-resourced communities. However, ultimately the key to addressing the over criminalisation lies in reducing unnecessary contact with the criminal justice system and the likelihood of future harm and incarceration.
Below are the 7 recommendations we put forward to the Committee.
- Recommendation 1: Expand pathways for support and accountability beyond police and the courts
- Recommendation 2: Invest in diversionary initiatives
- Recommendation 3: Invest in local communities and community-led solutions
- Recommendation 4: Greater investment in specialised and culturally safe police
- Recommendation 5: Community-specific induction for police officers when attached to a new community
- Recommendation 6: Cross cultural training for government agencies and NGOs
- Recommendation 7: QPS to focus on increased support, recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff with a particular focus on frontline police officers together with expanding the powers of PLOs
Follow the hyperlink to read the recommendations in full.
On 4 August 2022, the Australian Senate referred an inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for report by 31 July 2023.
The Committee will consider:
- The number of First Nations women and children who are missing and murdered;
- Current and historical practices to investigating the deaths and missing person on reports of First Nations women and children;
- Systemic causes of all forms of violence against First Nations women and children;
- The policies, practices and services that have been effective in reducing violence and increasing safety of First Nations women and children;
- The identification of effective actions that can be taken to remove systemic causes of violence against First Nations women and children; and
- Ways in which missing and murdered First Nations women and children and their families can be honoured and commemorated.
The driving forces behind the inquiry are Senators Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe who initially tabled the motion for the inquiry on 25 November 2021. Both Senators are family members of murdered First Nations women.
The inquiry raises significant and challenging issues directly affecting QIFVLS, QIFVLS’ clients and their families and is interlinked with the services QIFVLS provides. It brings to light systemic violence against First Nations women and children and highlights issues that QIFVLS has called for including a focus on community-led solutions; the development of a highly skilled specialised police service working partnership with communities, identifying underlying issues which have led to the silencing of First Nations women and children and the culture of fear – fear of reporting violence, and fear to trust authorities to keep women and children safe.
The inquiry will be able to look at how data on missing and murdered First Nations women and children is collected by police services on a state-by-state basis. Currently, there is no national database tracking the number of women and children who have disappeared or been killed. Importantly, the inquiry will also examine disparities between how deaths of First Nations women and children are investigated and resourced by police and portrayed in the media, in comparison to non-Indigenous women and children.
Additionally, our Principal Legal Officer, Ms Thelma Schwartz, was invited to appear before the Senate Committee for a private briefing on Friday 16 September at Parliament House, Canberra. The purpose of the briefing was to talk with a range of experts to discuss issues relevant to the conduct of the inquiry.
The due date for written submissions is 11 November and QIFVLS will be making a written submission.
If you would like to make a submission to the inquiry or gather more information, please follow this hyperlink .
The Cairns Post released this writeup on the amazing donation we received from the Trinity Anglican School as part of NAIDOC week. The year 11 cohort raised donations after Hayley Graham watched the YouTube video we released about out Care Pack Program. Thank you to Trinity Anglican School, and these wonderful students. If you haven’t already, please watch the video below.
If you or your organisation would like to help us with the important work we are doing, then please get in contact to make to chat about how to make a tax-free donation or other ways you may be able to help.
If anyone you know is experiencing or knows someone who is experiencing Domestic and Family Violence requiring Legal Advice and Assistance, please call us at QIFVLS on 1800 887 700.
You can also find us online at www.qifvls.com.au
If you wish to speak with someone about Domestic and Family violence you can contact:
DV Connect Women’s Line 1800 811 811
DV Connect Men’s Line 1800 600 636
For 24 hours crisis support please call:
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline Official on 1800 552 800
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