Families Australia’s first decade
In late 2011, Families Australia celebrated its 10th anniversary. We look back on our first decade with considerable pride on work that has advanced the interests of families at the national policy level.
Child safety and wellbeing
Perhaps the centrepiece of Families Australia’s achievements has been its high-profile advocacy, in concert with many others, for a national policy on protecting children. Ultimately, this work led to COAG's adoption of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 – Australia’s first ever national strategy to tackle child abuse.
To help make the National Framework a success, Families Australia brought together, and continues to coordinate, the Coalition of Organisations Committed to the Safety and Wellbeing of Australia’s Children, a consortium of over 100 major national NGOs and prominent academics who work together to advance the National Framework.
Seeking social justice
We are also proud to assist Forgotten Australians – a group of around 500,000 Australians who experienced institutional or other out-of-home care as children in the last century. By auspicing and working alongside our colleagues in the Alliance for Forgotten Australians since 2007, Families Australia has helped to generate greater awareness about the needs this group.
Empowering communities
Over the past nine successive years, National Families Week has enabled the participation of hundreds of thousands of Australians in thousands of community-level events, all aimed at celebrating the vital role of families.
Thought leadership
Families Australia’s National Oration series was established to highlight issues facing families. The first of the three National Orations held to date was delivered by Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Comm
onwealth of Australia. In 2011, Professor McGorry AO, Executive Director, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, and Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, spoke passionately about ongoing needs in the field of mental health in Australia to a large audience at Parliament House, Canberra, including many political and community leaders.
Influencing policy and practice
There has been a myriad of other, perhaps less well-known, achievements. Our advocacy in the lead-up to the 2010 Federal election directly resulted in additional, practical support for grandparent carers. Ongoing work with Centrelink and Medicare advisory committees has influenced positively the way in which these organisations interact with families. Our work on the Carer Payment (child) review taskforce helped to pave the way for thousands of carers to receive more funding to assist children with a disability.
The way we work
We place great importance on being politically impartial and working as a trusted facilitator between Government and the NGO community.