Child labour is a phrase associated with exploitation, poverty, insufficient education and various forms of physical abuse. These connotations do not match Australian perceptions about the employment of children and are not correlated with mainstream dialogue on teenagers in part time and casual employment. Child employment is an accepted part of Australian society, with older children making up a significant portion of the workforce. Minimum standards are increasingly regarded a critical safeguard for young Australians at work, evidenced by recent state level statutory amendment and enactment of dedicated legislation. This article makes two submissions; first, it suggests the regulation of young people's working conditions is inappropriately neglected at national level in Australia, and secondly, it proposes national standards should be set and equated with those in other developed economies, meeting international standards. The 1994 European Community Directive on the Protection of Young Workers is referred to as a suitable benchmark.

The education of children in care suffers significantly from a range of disruptions by virtue of them being in care. Research shows that the academic attainment of children in care is lower than that of other children in the general population. Consequently, many young people leave care with minimum or no educational/vocational qualifications and subsequently face adversity in adulthood. Using two case examples this article argues that workers need to look for the strengths in children in care and facilitate the mobilisation of those strengths for them to work their way towards a successful adulthood.

Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) develop when unborn children are exposed to alcohol prenatally. As a result of this exposure, children with FASD exhibit a range of social, behavioural, cognitive and even physical deficits that can impede their life-long development. These deficits can be influenced by maltreatment and the instability resulting from being placed into out-of-home care, and/or multiple foster-care placement breakdowns. The aim of this article is to increase awareness amongst child welfare professionals of how prenatal alcohol exposure impacts on children's social development. Social deficits include problems with social cognition and social information processing, which result in issues in social problem solving, processing social cues, social judgement, and developing and maintaining relationships. These deficits leave children with a FASD vulnerable to victimisation, exploitation, peer pressure and, as a result, interaction with the criminal justice system. Deficits are life-long and become more pronounced with age, although early detection and intervention appears to improve social skills deficits. Such interventions need to be explored further as they could potentially mitigate some of these deficits by capitalising on the neuroplasticity of a child's developing brain and pave a more positive trajectory for these children's future.

This article examines post-secondary education responses to intimate partner violence and forced marriage. Harmful practices that disproportionately affect women and girls, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and forced marriage, are particularly prevalent for women aged 16 to 25. This is also the age bracket during which attendance at college or university peaks. Post-secondary education therefore constitutes a potentially significant institutional context for intervention. To what extent universities are prepared or willing to take on this responsibility is a topic that is receiving increasing international attention. This article reports on recent findings from the UK and discusses them in an international and cultural framework. Cultural stereotyping in relation to gendered violence has rightly been criticised. However, as this article will argue, there are aspects of culture that are often glossed over in research and policy, yet are important for an understanding of how people and institutions think about and react to gendered abuse. The case of university responses to intimate partner violence and forced marriage illuminates these issues.

Over the past seven years, in my role with Anglicare WA, I have had the privilege of listening to many separated parents share their concerns about their children's safety when spending time with the other parent who has been violent towards them. These concerns include, but are not limited to, trying to prove to the court that their children have been victims of family violence and that this risk will continue and possibly escalate during contact visits. The protective parent often reports that the children continue to be sent on contact visits even when the children experience a significant degree of trauma over their time in the care of the offending parent. In some cases the offending parent has a new partner who is also a victim of family violence and the children are exposed to this violence while on contact visits. Despite disclosures from the children, and efforts to keep them safe by reporting to the statutory agencies, I find that many of these children continue to be sent on contact visits. I am frequently told by the protective parent that when they are in court they are informed that a) there is insufficient evidence to warrant the court preventing the child from spending time with the other (violent) parent; and b) the father has the right to a meaningful relationship with his child and therefore contact will be ordered. It seems that priority is given to the parent's right to spend time with the child at the expense of the child's need, and right, to be safe.

Family separation is a unique and dynamic process for each family. Family violence is a serious problem affecting societies across the world. It is a common driver for family dissolution. Children exposed to family violence face a distinctive predicament in their own adjustment, recovery and future relationships with their parents. Family dispute resolution is an increasing early intervention approach for separated families in conflict over parenting. Family dispute resolution practitioners are the gatekeepers for facilitating or preventing exploration of information about the complex relational dynamics, including risk and protective factors in each individual case. To avoid gambling with the child's future, it is crucial to centralise the needs of each individual child. An intervention approach to potentially enhance outcomes for the child, and therefore longer term outcomes for community and society, is child inclusive practice. However, this is not without complexity and challenges in cases of family violence.

In 2006, legislative changes were made to the Australian Family Law Act 1975. These changes included a revision of the matters that must be considered when determining children's best interests following parental separation, at Section 60CC. This section lists two ‘primary considerations’, which relate to the child's having a ‘meaningful relationship’ with both parents and ensuring that children are safe in their interactions with their parents and others in their lives. The first of the ‘Additional considerations’ under Section 60CC concerns ‘any views expressed by the child and any factors (such as the child's maturity or level of understanding) that the court thinks are relevant to the weight it should give to the child's views’. This consideration differs from that in the pre-2006 Act, which referred to a child's ‘wishes’ rather than her/his ‘views’. There is evidence, however, that those working in the family law system may not yet have made the shift towards understanding what these changes may entail.

In this article I explore the differences between the concepts of ‘wishes’ and ‘views’ as they relate to children in family law matters. I argue that these concepts are qualitatively different, and that children's ‘views’ are far more encompassing than their ‘wishes’. Moving to a far broader understanding of children and their ability to understand issues that directly affect their lives may lead to the development of more comprehensive decisions about their futures.

This article reports on a study of parents’ and children's responses to the service they received at two Family Relationship Centres (FRCs) in Perth, Western Australia. Family members who had attended either the Mandurah or Joondalup FRCs sponsored by AnglicareWA between 2010 and 2012 were invited to complete a survey that asked them for their views on the services they had received. A total of 74 parents, representing 139 children, completed the survey. Findings indicated significant satisfaction with the two-hour group session that introduces the work of the FRCs, with parents reporting they could remember the main messages from the session. A surprising finding, and one that has not been reported elsewhere, is that parents expressed an unwillingness to invite their own children to participate in the work of the Centres, although the majority of the respondents agreed in principle that children should take part. The implications of this finding are briefly discussed.