Giving Due Weight to Children and Young People in Australian Policy Making

Abstract While Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is often cited to assure children’s right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them, little is known about the practices associated with giving due weight to their views in policy-making that impacts their lives. This paper reports on critical-participatory research exploring the practices of more than 100 policy actors, conducted with five young co-researchers with lived experience of Australian child protection and out-of-home care systems. Practices associated with giving due weight included: involving children as policy actors, listening, giving feedback and reporting back, and amplifying their views. Practices were constrained by discourses of authenticity/tokenism; bureaucracy and jurisdiction; the attribution of expertise; and limited funding and time. Research demonstrated opportunities for realising Article 12 through intergenerational dialogue and valuing the lived experience and agency of young people as policy actors.