Social Services Committee to visit Australia for Committee Exchange

20 May 2011

The Social Services Committee will visit Australia from 23 May 2011 to 27 May 2011, Dr The Rt Hon Lockwood Smith announced today. The visit is part of the select committee exchange that takes place annually between the parliaments of New Zealand and Australia.

Committee members Katrina Shanks (Chairperson), Chester Borrows, Tim Macindoe, Dr Rajen Prasad, and Su’a William Sio will be guests of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament.

The committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into the identification, rehabilitation, and care and protection of children that commit crimes. “This visit will allow the committee to study the effectiveness of the Australian approach to child offending, and compare it with New Zealand’s”, Dr Smith said.

The programme includes meetings in Sydney with the Children’s Court of New South Wales and Children and Families Research, and in Victoria, with the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the Children’s Court Clinic, and the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee of the Parliament of Victoria.

In addition, the committee will meet with the Presiding Officers from the Federal Parliament and the State Parliaments of New South Wales and Victoria, and will have a variety of other relevant meetings during its time in Australia.