TOGETHER AND BY ASSOCIATION She’s also sat on a number of boards, led the development of policy responses to the child sexual abuse Royal Commission, and published six statutory reports on child rights issues. However, it is her work as the first National Children’s Commissioner, putting a focus on children’s rights for the first time at a national level, that she is most proud of. While Ms Mitchell has seen huge advances in children’s rights in her career, today’s youth are under pressure in ways unlike those experienced by generations before. “Knowing the awful things that can happen to children is a pretty hard thing to swallow.” “One of the hardest things is knowing that in trying to protect children, you don’t always get the best outcomes for them, and they get swept up into systems that do them even more harm.” Compounded by the threats posed by technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing domestic violence and struggling child protection systems, there’s still a long way to go in securing children’s rights in Australia. Keeping her going, however, is the pride she knows her late mother would feel of what she made of her rocky upbringing. “She would probably be a bit emotional about this. She’d be proud as punch. She’d be over the moon.”
152 JOURNAL LA SALLE - EDITION 1, 2021
