#MeToo focus on women must shift to kids, says National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds

The success of the women’s movement is having an unintended consequence, says children’s commissioner.

“I have to say in my whole ­career in child and family wellbeing, and I’ve been in the sector for a few decades now, not a lot has changed,” says Anne Hollonds.

National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds says the MeToo movement has led to an increased focus in women’s policy and funding over recent years but is leaving policy on children “underdone”.

While welcoming the gains made in improving outcomes for women, Ms Hollonds told The Australian there was the false belief that this would have a natural “trickle down” effect on children.

“I support this focus on women, it’s been long-fought for and decades of work. The problem is when we think the job is done, and I’m not seeing a sufficient shift towards children,” she said.

“What I would like to start seeing is some acknowledgment that children’s policy has been underdone. There are many reasons that’s been the case – like the complexity of it and the historical view that children are an appendage of their parents and there will be that trickle down.

National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollands.

“I have to say in my whole ­career in child and family wellbeing, and I’ve been in the sector for a few decades now, not a lot has changed. Like the removal of kids, for child protection issues, the youth justice issues that are in crisis, these things have not been properly addressed.”

It follows Ms Hollonds last month launching a project on youth justice and child wellbeing reform, which will look at the age of criminal responsibility and harmonising youth justice strategies across the country.

Ms Hollonds said the National Plan to end Violence Against Women and Children was still “light on” in its understanding of children, and more research into how children in particular were affected by violence was needed.

“Because of the lack of research, the lack of data, the lack of understanding of what children are experiencing, I guess it’s inevitable this current plan is light on when it comes to kids.

“What I’m seeking to do is to try to encourage the government to take this on in a much more ­serious fashion.”

She said she also would have liked the early years strategy being developed by Labor to have “gone a bit further” to include children up to eight years.