There is no national voice in Australia for parents, families and carers.
Every industry and professional interest group in the country has a national
voice to get in the ears of government - except families. Yet parents, families
and carers are far and away the largest bloc of citizens, voters and consumers in
the country, but have the weakest voice.
Why? There are many reasons for this.
Families are not organised in the way industry, unions or single issue activists
are organised. In the absence of designated institutions which represent
families, governments have looked to funded service delivery agencies and
research institutes for advice on family matters. Families with members with a
disability or a learning difficulty or chronic or mental illness tend to be
pre-occupied with getting through each day,
and have lacked the resources or time or expertise to allocate to advancing
their long term interests. Likewise, families from indigenous or non-english
speaking backgrounds are doubly disadvantaged due to their inability to confer
strongly with the dominant language group. For its part, the media does not know
any household names who speak for families, in the way that a Bob Brown speaks
for environment issues, or a Tim Costello speaks for poverty issues, or a Bill
Shorten speaks for unions.
We aim to change all this. We invite your participation in a long overdue
process to create a national voice for parents, families and carers.
Our objective is to find an appropriate method and structure for developing a
national voice in Australia for parents, families and carers.
2. This voice will incorporate three functions:
i. advocacy of the interests
of parents, families and carers as interests which are distinct from those of
governments or service providers or charities;
ii. development and promotion of public policy which enhances the rights,
capacities, choices, and dignity of parents, families and carers;
iii. development and promotion of innovation in support and service delivery
which empowers parents, families and cares, and builds our capacities and
resources.
3. We aim to bring together parents, families and carers from several
different sectors which have previously been isolated from each other, including
education and schools; child care; early intervention and early years
development; disability; mental illness; learning difficulties; behavioural
difficulties; youth support; chronic and acute illness; and senior years.
4. We aim to develop a voice that is as broad and inclusive as possible which
will not be aligned with any religious or cultural perspective on family
structure or bio-ethical issues.
5. We aim to develop a voice that can attract significant financial and
infrastructure support from public, private, philanthropic and charitable
sources.
6. We welcome the participation in this process of
i. individuals who are parents, families or carers;
ii. organisations which are advocacy or self-help groups of parents, families
or carers;
iii. individual philanthropists or donors and philanthropic and private sector
organisations who support our objectives
Please contact me if you wish to submit an expression of interest, or would
like to keep in touch with the progress.
Jenny Shale
Head of Department Social Justice
Ph: 07 3451 8715
Mob: 0404 847884
Call for a Nationa
Reply to this message
