Official Launch of Children’s Week in Queensland

Dinstinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to join you for the launch of Children’s Week, and I extend a special welcome to all the children here today, because this week is all about you.

The Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens are a wonderful place to launch Children’s Week, because they are filled with interesting and engaging spaces for children, from the Kuta Kids Playground to the Kitchen in the Gardens, to the wide and winding paths just begging to raced down by small feet.

One favourite is the Hide ‘n’ Seek Children’s Trail – in my view, Brisbane’s best scavenger hunt – which takes children on an exciting adventure to discover hidden treasures, from the ‘croc in the creek’ to a giant musical fern leaf. 

Scavenger hunts are great fun, and in the case of the Hide ‘n’ Seek Children’s Trail, a terrific way to learn about the flora and fauna of our State.

Too often in our modern world, searching for reliable information is like a scavenger hunt – frustrating enough for adults, but utterly bewildering, and often misleading, for a child.

The theme of Children’s Week this year is ‘Children have the right to reliable information from the media’.

Children are especially vulnerable to misinformation, and in a world where children and adults alike are showered with messages, it is important that information targeted at children is accurate and reliable. 

Children’s Week is also an occasion to promote the ideals and objectives of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Respect for the dignity and worth of every child, and the responsibility of us all to build a community which fosters their growth and development, is at the heart of the Convention, and it has been at the heart of Queensland Children’s Week for 45 years.

It is a cause of great pride for me, as Patron, to reflect that the Queensland’s Children’s Week Association has remained faithful to the goals it set in 1971.

I pay special tribute to the President of the Queensland Children’s Week Association, Mr Leigh Shenfield, who has been involved for 43 of the organisation’s 45 years – a tremendous record of service.

I congratulate the Queensland Children’s Week Association for the wonderful program of activities they have planned, and wish all Queenslanders, especially our children, an enjoyable Children’s Week.  Thank you.