Children’s & Carers’ Rights Resources

Liana Buchanan has been a tireless advocate for children and young people. Appointed Principal Commissioner for the Commission for Children and Young People in Victoria in 2016, Liana was responsible for key initiatives like the Reportable Conduct Scheme and Child Safe Standards.

In March 2025 she was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

On her last day as Children’s Commissioner, Liana spoke with KCV about the work of kinship carers and about the challenges and successes in her nine years in the role.

KCV Thanks Liana

Anne McLeish
Director
GPV/KCV

The Client Incident Management System (CIMS) is the program that investigates reports of incidents made against carers who may have mistreated children in their care. There are reports made against kinship carers, but this does not happen very often. Over the years, KCV has witnessed some serious breaches of carers’ rights, particularly when a report is not upheld. Carers and children have been seriously affected by the unfairness of the processes over the years and are not compensated for years of trauma when a report is not upheld.

In this podcast, lawyer Fleur Ward talks about how the DFFH has undertaken a review of CIMS procedures and has released a new set of guidelines. Carers need to be aware that it is quite easy for a report to be made and that if one is made, they need to listen to this podcast and contact their support agency immediately.

Check the CIMS guide on the DFFH website by clicking here.

MORE INFORMATION

– Check the DFFH’s latest guide to CIMS here

Evidence indicates that physical punishment can lead to increased anxiety or depression in adulthood, and the likelihood of people engaging in violence in later life.
There are alternative effective discipline practices that don’t involve physical punishment. These evidence-based practices can help increase children’s understanding of why they are being helped to recognise that certain behaviours are not desirable.
Sixty-six countries have legislated against the use of physical punishment on children and a further 27 countries have committed to doing so. Why is Australia not one of them?

In this podcast KCV speaks with Professor Daryl Higgins, Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies at Australian Catholic University (ACU) and member of the Ending Physical Punishment of Australian Children (EPPAC) advocacy campaign.

MORE INFORMATION

– Research shows it’s harmful to smack your child, so what should parents do instead? (article originally published online at The Conversation)

In this podcast Susan McLean of Cybersafety Solutions answers many questions around helping children and young people to navigate the online world safely. Susan is acknowledged as Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and young people.

MORE INFORMATION

– Download the ‘Cyber safety for children and young people’ resource booklet

The February 2023 edition of the Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Poll – Australian Families: How we play – has produced findings of great interest. In this podcast we speak with paediatrician, researcher and child health advocate Dr Anthea Rhodes, the Founding Director of the poll. Anthea has expertise in child behaviour and development.

MORE INFORMATION

– Download the ‘Camps and Respite’ resource booklet

What are the latest trends in nutrition? What does recent research say about what and how we should eat? And what the children in our care, in particular those children with neurodevelopmental disorders, should eat? In this podcast we speak again with Nikki Valentini, Clinical Nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner and Director of SuperNature Nutrition on a range of topics regarding nutrition.

MORE INFORMATION

– Download the ‘Diet, Nutrition and Wellbeing’ resource booklet

GPV/KCV is pleased to launch its video on positive discipline. It is a feature in the GPV/KCV campaign to ensure that physical punishment of children is made illegal across Australia.

The video is recommended as a gentle reminder that positive discipline can work. The video should be viewed in conjunction with reading written materials on positive discipline.

Non-physical types of discipline for children and young people (booklet)
Reasons not to hit children (article)
Physical punishment in Australia (video)

GPV/KCV commends signing the petition to have physical punishment made illegal across Australia.

https://www.change.org/p/end-physical-punishment-of-children-protect-australian-children