Leadership team appears before parliamentary committee
The leadership team of Children’s Guardian Rachael Ward and Deputy Guardian Bianca Dufty appeared for the first time before the NSW Parliamentary Joint Committee on Children and Young People on Friday 8 May.
Committee members asked questions about the Office of the Children’s Guardian Annual Report 2024–25.
‘While our annual report was the main order of the day, the hearing also gave us the chance to update the committee on some significant recent developments here at the OCG,’ Ms Ward said.
‘Not least of these is the appointment of Bianca to the Deputy Guardian role in February this year, so it was a proud moment to go before the committee for the first time since my appointment as Children’s Guardian with a full-strength leadership team.’
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Children and Young People includes members from both Houses of Parliament – and from the government, the opposition and the Greens, and is chaired by Independent MP Helen Dalton.
‘It’s an important part of my independence as a regulator that I report directly to parliament, and these public hearings are central to our accountability to the people of NSW,’ Ms Ward said.
‘Our annual report foreshadowed the creation of an internal review team to handle appeals against our Working with Children Check decisions, and I was pleased to update the committee that the new process is fully up and running.
‘I also updated them on how we’re putting new government funding to work on enforcing child protection laws and investigating breaches of those laws.
‘I thank each committee member for their questions and insights, and my thanks also go to Bianca, Larissa Johnson, Director, Out-of-home Care Regulation and Alexis Bradshaw, Acting Director, Working with Children Check for answering questions in their specialist areas,’ Ms Ward said.
