CFKC CEO speech at 2026 National Conference
National Foster and Kinship Care Conference
31 July – 2 August 2026, Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Speech by Russell Hooper, CEO CFKC as part of the National Collective Panel presentation
I also want to acknowledge we are on the lands of the Undambi people of the Gubbi Gubbi Nation.
My name is Russell Hooper, and I’m the CEO of Connecting Foster and Kinship Carers South Australia.
It’s wonderful to be here — to hear what’s happening across the country, and to learn from the great work happening in each of your communities.
I’m the newest member of the National Collective — the Baby Spice, if you like. I’ll leave it to you to decide who is Scary, Ginger, Posh and Sporty.
I also want to thank the other members for their collaboration, their support, and their patience with all my questions since I stepped into this role.
I want to reflect for a moment on the importance of independent foster and kinship carer associations. Most of us run on a shoestring, sustained by our members, our teams, and our shared commitment to children and young people in care — and to the people who care for them.
We have a unique role in trying to make the system work better for carers, children and young people.
We provide individual advocacy when things aren’t working the way they should within a care team.
And we use what we hear through that work, and through conversations with carers, to push for broader change.
We also create opportunities for carers to connect, learn from each other and build their skills — and this conference, hosted by Queensland Foster and Kinship Care, is a great example of that.
We are stronger because of our members, so thank you — and if you’re not yet a member, please sign up. It’s fast and free.
In South Australia, I’ve been in the role for about four months now, and it has been a busy start. So I want to share a few of my organisation’s priorities.
Legislation implementation:
Last year, new legislation passed in South Australia to help reform the system. There are important improvements in it, even if it isn’t perfect.
It includes new guidelines on quality of care (currently known as care concerns) and complaints, builds consultation with peaks into the legislation, and more deeply embeds the Aboriginal Child Placement Principles.
It also strengthens procedural fairness and the focus on children and young people’s best interests.
Is the legislation perfect? No. Will it fix everything? Also no. But it does build in reviews every five years, and that gives us a chance to keep pushing for improvement.
Legislation can set the direction, but as we all know, the devil is in the detail.
And we have a limited window of influence, with the new legislation starting next year.
Whether those improvements actually make a difference will depend on how the legislation is implemented.
So my organisation is focused on making sure carers have a strong voice in how that implementation is designed.
As well as advocating for carers to be directly involved in that design, we’ve also done our own consultation.
That is backed by what my team hears every day through our Carer Advocacy Service and the Carer Council — a lived experience Ministerial Advisory Group administered by my organisation.
The key themes probably won’t shock anyone in this room. Carers told us:
- They want to be treated as genuine partners in decision making
- Family, sibling and cultural connections are valued but need better support
- Placement stability depends on practical support for carers and children
- Children and young people need to be genuinely heard.
We’ve published the consultation outcomes online and made sure key decision-makers, including the Minister and department CEO, have seen them.
The job now is to build that feedback into implementation — not leave it sitting as good ideas on a page.
I know legislation implementation can sound dry. But it shows the everyday work our associations do.
You may have heard the saying, ‘you don’t want to know how the sausage is made’. I disagree. We do know how it’s made — and we need to be part of the recipe.
That is the work of foster and kinship care associations: not just calling out what’s wrong, but using every lever we have to create positive change.
Carer Payments:
Another big focus for us is support for carers — and especially financial support.
South Australia sits alongside Western Australia as having the second-lowest carer payment in the country. Only Victoria is lower.
And South Australia is getting more expensive. House prices and rents have risen by about 30 per cent in three years, while the carer payment has increased by just over 5 per cent.
And carers are feeling that pressure. In a recent survey, we heard that:
- Financial pressure forces reduced participation and social connection – for carers and children and young people
- Trade-offs affect wellbeing, health, and family functioning
- Carers are having to further cut discretionary spending and “treats”
- Depleting financial buffers (savings, superannuation, credit)
- Emotional and relational toll because of the constant constraint
One quote that really stayed with me was: “…we will have to stop doing everything fun if it gets worse…”.
These ‘fun’ things are not nice-to-haves. Swimming lessons, entertainment and recreation all matter for psycho-social development and wellbeing of our young people.
South Australia’s opposition has recently passed an inquiry into the carer payment, giving us another chance to make the case for change.
It makes moral, social and economic sense to better support carers. Expensive residential care rarely delivers the outcomes we want, especially compared with family-based care.
As we develop our submission, we’ll keep lifting up carers’ experiences and focusing on solutions — including where the money could come from.
NDIS:
Before I finish, I want to touch briefly on the NDIS changes and the introduction of Thriving Kids.
Some people in South Australia might be asking, “Why does Russell keep on talking about this?”
The reason is simple. Many children and young people in out-of-home care require NDIS early intervention supports.
Around a third of children in out-of-home care in South Australia are on an NDIS package. About half are in the age range for the new eligibility criteria, and about half of those children will move to Thriving Kids.
From 1 January 2028 — just 17 months away — we move from a universal system to a capped one.
If the budget is maxed out, these kids could end up on waiting lists, or with support spread too thin.
So what does that mean for the children in your care — and for placement stability — if you are not getting enough support?
While I’m pleased the South Australian Government has identified this as a priority cohort, we need reassurance that these children and young people won’t be an afterthought.
Please don’t wait to raise this. It needs to be central to the design process now. We cannot let these kids fall through the gaps.
Close:
In closing, thank you for providing safe, loving homes for children who may not otherwise have one.
In just over four months, I’ve seen so much passion, care, love, concern and commitment.
That keeps me going — and I know it keeps my colleagues on this stage going as well.
Thank you for what you do, and thank you for listening.