I'm putting up my hand.

We’ve been asked to put our hand up and help protect children.

Actually, we need everyone to listen.

I knew what was happening in the households of my friends and family when I was a kid. I was a kid, so nothing really was hidden from me. I saw daily life. I knew what they ate for breakfast and I knew what music they danced to in their kitchens. I knew of the violence and the neglect. I knew those kids that didn’t want to go home at night. I knew that they were often the ones standing up for themselves and their siblings and even their own parents. I knew they were telling adults in their lives. I wondered why no adults were doing anything?

Ultimately, it wasn’t the child protection system that got these kids out. It was the kids themselves.

They moved out at 14 or told their dad to never come back or went out and got a job so that their siblings could have something to eat. Sometimes services supported them, sometimes they got in the way.

I knew it was wrong so as soon as I was old enough I started to put my hand up to help. I tried everything I could think of.

I put my hand up to get involved with Youth Parliament.

I put my hand up to be the Youth Governor and represent the voices of young people for my community.

I put my hand up to go to law school.

I put my hand up to get involved in university politics.

I put my hand up to run the marches.

I put my hand up to run the campaigns.

I put my hand up to help get people elected that shared my views.

I was really good at it. I tried my hardest.

And yet none of that worked. So I joined the government.

I put my hand up to run fundraisers to raise awareness.

I put my hand up to create a policy.

I put my hand up to run front line services.

I put my hand up to innovate and try something new.

I put my hand up lead and manage teams.

I put my hand up to help reform things from the inside.

I was really good at it. I tried my hardest.

And yet none of that worked. So I turned to capitalism.

I put my hand up to create a startup to change the world.

I was really good at it. I tried my hardest.

That might have worked.

But the day after the Minister launched our startup, I found out that my little sister was in child protection.

So I put my hand up and I put everything on hold to go and pick up a tiny baby from a child protection office. Most people have 9 months to get ready for a baby. I had 6 days.

I can say with authority that the hardest thing I have ever had to do is to deal with the child protection system. It doesn’t work. Children in my community are dying, which is what we have all been trying to prevent.

I don’t think anyone in the systems that are designed to protect children isn’t putting their hand up as high as they possibly can already. I think everyone has been putting their hand up for so long that they are getting tired of waving the flag.

We have a child protection crisis. We’ve had one for a while. Everyone wants to solve it.

Especially the kids, their friends and their families. They need the adults to listen.

So I’m putting my hand up again. And this time, it’s to go and listen. I really hope that others will too.

Today I am slowing down and valuing the work that all of us have already done in putting up our hands to help, no matter who we are or what side of the political and social divide we fall on. I know that for so many of us, no matter what our role is in that system that it has been a hard slog. I’m going to cry today and let myself despair just a little bit.

And tomorrow I am going to get up, start again and find some hope. Because if we all keep putting our hands up, if we work together and if we listen to those impacted most, I think we can create a better system.

One that protects kids.