Australia’s most at-risk children “is deteriorating at an extraordinarily rapid
pace,” according to a
leading family law expert.
Professor Patrick
Parkinson of Sydney University, in a report entitled “For Kid’s Sake” [1], has said that the issue of family
breakdown is one of the major causes of “ a large range of adverse consequences
for many children and young people”.
Professor Parkinson,
who helped shape family policy under the government of Prime Minister John
Howard, added: “ Family conflict and parental separation have a range of adverse
impacts on children and young people.”
His report highlights the “rapid rise in the numbers of
children born into de facto relationships, which subsequently break down.” These
together with births to single women accounted for 35 per cent of all children
born in Australia in 2009.
According to the
report, the number of children who have to live in out-of-home care because
their own homes are not safe doubled between 1997 and 2009. A substantial
proportion of these are indigenous (Aboriginal) children.
The report also
highlighted a decline in the psychological wellbeing of young people, thousands
of whom are on anti-depressants.
More than a quarter
of young people aged 16 to 24 have a mental disorder. There has been a huge
increase in self-harming behaviour amongst adolescents, especially amongst girls
aged 15 to 17, and binge drinking resulting in hospitalisation has soared
amongst females aged 15 to 24.
The trends reflected
the situation in Europe and North America, the report notes, and “cannot be
explained away merely by changes in awareness, or in diagnostic
tests.”
Prof Parkinson, a
family law specialist who helped shape family policy under the Howard
government, warns that these problems are not just “spot fires” but signs of a
“major bush fire” burning in the background.
The report suggests a
plan which would involve providing relationship education at critical “times of
transition” such as when couples begin to live together, when they are preparing
for marriage and when they are preparing for
childbirth.
The scheme, which the
report proposes be administered by community trusts in each local government
area, would not need much government support.
However, the report
does recommend the establish to provide national leadership the federal
government should establish a Families Commission.
Professor Parkinson
also points out that, for 20 years or so, Australian family policy has treated
all families alike without reference to family structure.
“Yet the overwhelming
evidence from research is that children do best in two-parent married families,
and this is not just the result of selection effects.
“The difference
marriage seems to make is in the commitment that it involves, providing a
greater degree of stability and resilience, especially when times are
difficult,” he says.
Instead of taking
this approach, he recommends that the government, in reviewing family policy,
ought to ask whether policy encourage the maintenance of stable, safe and
committed relationships between parents and whether it encourages the
procreation of children in a context that maximises their chances of
experiencing a stable, safe and nurturing home
environment.