The child participation principle in child protection law in New South Wales.

The article examines the child participation principle in child protection law in New South Wales. It is in the light of this traditional focus on children's best interests in child protection proceedings, that new child protection laws in New South Wales, Australia, may seem quite radical. In this jurisdiction, the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 has enacted a participation principle as one of its foundational principles. The participation principle is given specific effect in a number of different places in the Act. These may be categorized as follows: the right to initiate intervention; the right to information; the right to participate when decisions are made and the right to have one's wishes taken into account. The Act spells out that either a parent or a child or young person may seek assistance from the Department of Community Services, and if this occurs, the Department is under a legal obligation to respond. The Act requires organizations to have their own complaints procedures in place, and the Community Services Commission need only play a role if those complaints processes have failed to resolve the matter in a satisfactory way. The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, which has been established for many years, seeks to ensure that an aboriginal child will be placed with an aboriginal family unless there is no such carer available.