Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note that last week was National Child Protection Week, from 7 to 13 September. In the lead-up to the week, the member for Macarthur and I hosted a lunch and parliamentary briefing for members and senators by the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, or NAPCAN. Maree Faulkner, the CEO of NAPCAN, and other speakers briefed us on how we as individuals and as parliamentarians can support the work of NAPCAN to prevent child abuse in our communities through early intervention and prevention programs and by raising public awareness through campaigns such as the ‘Children See, Children Do’ campaign. NAPCAN released the ‘Children See, Children Do’ campaign nationally last week, and I was fortunate to also attend a NAPCAN breakfast last Monday for the Perth launch of the campaign. The campaign includes a short yet very powerful video graphically depicting how children mirror the behaviours of their parents. I urge those members who have not yet seen it to do so.

In accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children are entitled to special protection and, as Michelle Scott, the WA commissioner for Children and Young People, has said, ‘Children are entitled to be valued and heard, to be healthy and safe, to be acknowledged, encouraged and enabled.’ That is our challenge and our collective and individual responsibility.