Olya Booyar  (President) Rosanna Martinello (CEO)

There has been a changing of the guard at the NAPCAN with the appointment of a new President of the Board and a new Chief Executive Officer. Olya Booyar took on the role of President following NAPCAN’s November 2009 AGM. NAPCAN’s new CEO, Rosanna Martinello, joined us at the end of January. Olya has been an active member of the NAPCAN Board for five years.  She has a range of experience from her work as an executive with SBS, Deputy Director of the Classification Board and her current role as General Manager of Content, Consumer and Citizen division at the Australian Communications and Media Authority, plus numerous voluntary roles in public life. Rosanna has experience in both the social economy and business world. Her most recent employment was as CEO of Osteoporosis Australia, prior to which she was a senior executive at CSR Limited. She has been a non-executive Director of a NSW Area Health Service, has served on several national cancer advisory committees and is the founding member of the Young Breast Cancer Action Group NSW.

Over the Christmas break we were extremely busy putting together a submission for a Senate Inquiry examining the Government’s proposal to expand and redesign the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER).

Our submission (no. 31) along with others is available here.

As detailed in our Submission, NAPCAN‟s position and recommendations are as
follows:

"Broad support of the proposed NTER reforms because they put the best
interests of children in the forefront of social welfare policy and cease the
structural racial discrimination of the NTER. However, NAPCAN
acknowledges there are serious risks in an interventionist approach.
Therefore, NAPCAN recommends certain modifications and initiatives to
further strengthen the Government‟s reforms to ensure the safety and
wellbeing of children:

• Investment in primary prevention measures to stop child abuse and neglect
  before it starts
• Investment in substantial broader community education initiatives;
• Limited compulsory income management with ability to “opt-in”;
• Financial management courses to complement income management;
• Adoption of a model comparable to the Cape York model; and
• Rigorous evaluation of NTER."

If you are interested in learning more please read our full submission, and let us know what you think via email or Facebook.

Last month, the Attorney-General flagged the possibility of changing the shared parenting provisions of the Family Law Act if they are not in the best interests of children, releasing three important reports:

1. Evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms, by the Australian Institute of Family Studies
2. Family Courts Violence Review, by Richard Chisholm AM
3. Improving Responses to Family Violence in the Family Law System, by the Family Law Council

We recommend that you read at least the executive summaries as they paint an eye-opening picture of the effect on children of the 2006 “shared parenting” amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 and the current state of the family law system in Australia.

On the shared parenting laws, NAPCAN strongly believes:

• the law should be changed to allow judges to weigh up a single list of factors when determining what is in the best interests of the child
• the law should discard the presumption that “equal” or “substantial and significant” time (with each parent) is always in the best interests of the child.

If you want your say on any prospective changes to the Family Law Act, go to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s easy comment section. Or let us know via email or Facebook!

From feedback we received last year, it was clear our supporters wanted to speak out and be heard on child abuse and neglect issues. Therefore this year we are here to provide you with the relevant information which will help you to lobby your local MPs in state and federal elections.

One of the things NAPCAN advocates for is sustained and committed funding for the prevention of child abuse measures. Examples of these are:

• Pre and post natal home visiting services, including intensive parenting programs that will attract new parents
• Early childhood programs (0-5).

Upcoming state elections in South Australia and Tasmania (20 March) will be the focus of our attention. If you would like to write a letter to your Local MP, click on the link below.