Before New Appointment is Made
The Tasmanian Greens today urged the Children’s Minister, Michelle O’Byrne, to prioritise reviewing the length of the Children’s Commissioner’s term of office and the position’s key powers.
Greens Children’s spokesperson, Paul O’Halloran MP said it is timely to fix these problems as identified, before the replacement process for outgoing Children’s Commission Aileen Ashford is finalised.
“The Children’s Commissioner position is a crucial advocate for some of our most vulnerable, and if there are serious problems identified as impacting on the effectiveness and capacity of this position, then they need to be fixed quickly,” Mr O’Halloran said.
“Crucially concerns over the position’s capacity to initiate its own investigations must be resolved.”
“The public must have confidence that Commissioners are able to conduct their work at arm’s length from the Minister of the day, otherwise their work risks becoming politicised, and incumbants need to be clear on what is expected of them.”
“Now is also an ideal time to enact the Auditor-General’s recommendation and extend the position’s term from three years to five, while the recruitment process for Ms Ashford’s replacement gets underway.”
“The Tasmanian Auditor General has also identified that the current three-year term for appointees may be ‘insufficient time for the Commissioner to implement longer term strategies’.” [1]
“The current three year term is out of step with all other Australian states, which provide a five year term for appointees to the same role.”
“As Chair of the parliamentary inquiry into child protection, I found the Commissioner to be extremely useful source of advice and information on issues concerning the welfare of Children.”
“The Commissioner for children plays an important role as the watchdog for the welfare of young Tasmanians, which is why the Minister must address these concerns as a priority.”
REFERENCE: [1] Tasmanian Auditor-General Special Report No. 96: Appointment of the Commissioner for Children, 12 April 2011
Paul O’Halloran MP Greens Children’s Spokesperson Tuesday, 16 April 2013
