The Royal Commission’s Public Hearings continued this week, with some very relevant and valuable information provided on two key topics of interest to our work.

On Tuesday, we examined the topic of Children and Young People. I want to thank the witnesses for their detailed and, at times, confronting evidence. Some of the data is particularly concerning, and certainly reinforces the need for the voices of children and young people to be heard.

Wednesday’s session on Intervention Orders also raised many stories and insights on intervention orders, their impact and their effectiveness. As I said in my opening statement, I have sat with many men and women over the past few months, listening to their stories about Intervention Orders, so it was important we examined this in detail within the setting of a Public Hearing.

We are now more than half way through our Public Hearings, with two more scheduled for next week and our last two later in March.

These hearings are helping explore emerging themes and examine critical issues and topics that have been raised in our listening sessions, sector meetings, submissions and through the Share With Us survey. I appreciate everyone who has contributed to our information gathering process.

We now turn our mind to next week’s sessions – on Innovative Approaches (Tuesday 4 March) and Empowerment and Recovery (Wednesday 5 March).

I look forward to providing a further update next week.

Natasha Stott Despoja AO