May 2016
Last month, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released the latest edition of Child protection Australia, the annual Australian Government publication that charts how our nation is performing in terms of protecting children.
The figures made distressing reading. Substantiations of child abuse in 2014-15 rose to over …
Apr 2016
Several leading non-government organisations have joined together over the past few months to draw attention to the plight of children in orphanages in developing countries. It is estimated that there are between two and eight million children living in orphanages and other types of residential institution across the developing …
Mar 2016
Last week I participated in a truly inspirational gathering of around 80 leaders from across Australia to discuss how we can develop a national child mental health strategy. The Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, convened the roundtable. The need to focus on child mental health in a …
Mar 2016
What must we do differently to become a nation where all children and young people grow up safe and well?
That was the central question posed at this week’s policy forum convened by Families Australia in Melbourne. Around 50 people heard about latest developments with the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Childr…
Feb 2016
For much of the past decade Families Australia has supported adult survivors of children’s institutions in Australia during the 20th century—the ‘Forgotten Australians’—to have their concerns acknowledged and addressed in national policy and programs. Mercifully, large-scale children’s institutions have long been clo…
Jan 2016
Welcome to the Families Australia website. We work to improve the wellbeing of families, especially those experiencing the greatest vulnerability and marginalisation. Families Australia does this by providing policy advice to the Australian Parliament and Government and by running national events such as National Families Week a…