#7 No voice, no choice: children, young people and broken legal systems - with Youth Advocate

<p>Today we continue the theme from the last episode with Professor Camilla Nelson about the family court system. In this episode I interview a young person with experience of going through the family court and child protection system. Section 121 of the Family Law Act, and other laws in the child protection system, prevent me from identifying the young person, which is frankly absurd. This muzzles young people, preventing them from speaking up about what is happening to them. Instead of protecting children, it protects underperforming child protection and family court systems and officials.</p> <p>I would normally introduce the person here, but instead I will say that this person highlighted all of the value we don&rsquo;t have in our public debate around the family law, family violence and child protection systems. They highlighted how impoverished our notions of care in the child protection system are, how alienated young people are from the decisions affecting their lives, and how much better our public policy would be if they were given more opportunity and better platforms to share their expertise.</p> <p>Timestamps:</p> <ul> <li>Why regulation matters to young people involved in the Child Protection, Family Law and Family Violence systems (2:00)</li> <li>Does the family law system <em>really </em>act in the best interests of children (5:30)</li> <li>Detailing the number of workers involved in a child or young person&rsquo;s life (7:00)</li> <li>&ldquo;Best interests&rdquo; assessments of a child often fail to take into account what <em>the child</em> wants (11:00)</li> <li><em>Why </em>this occurs so frequently across the system (14:00)</li> <li>Whether children and young people safer after their interactions with the family law, family violence and child protection systems (17:00)</li> <li>Whether just law reform changes alone would give children and young people more choice (21:00)</li> <li>What can be done to give children and young people more say and more safety (25:00)</li> <li>One (or mo