Mr. Damien Peelo:

Senator Flynn raised an important question that is often overlooked. It concerns the intersectionality of racism, including institutionalised racism, and how a member of a minority group is doubly impacted and can be affected in many ways we have not thought about. In the five years in which I have been with Treoir, I encountered three unfortunate cases in which members of the Traveller community were prevented from seeing their children after the breaking up of a relationship with a person from the majority population. In these cases, the courts upheld that the Travellers' way of living was such that it was not appropriate for a child to visit them. That is not based on evidence, and it is not even based on a section 47 report; it is based on somebody's perception of what it is to be a Traveller and what living in a halting site or Traveller-specific scheme would entail. This has caused hurt. We can talk about access laws, maintenance and other issues but at the root of what I have described is institutionalised discrimination and racism. Therefore, alongside all the work we are talking about, we require anti-racism work and training for the Judiciary, workers and all of us in the field so we will gain a deeper understanding of the impact on minority groups. We talk about the voice of children but the voice of minorities needs to be elevated and heard so we can address the issues of concern. It often gets overlooked and does not get brought up in debates. I thank the Senator for raising it.