Appendix 2 | Background information on ECEC and school closures during the pandemic in Australia (d) The impact of disasters on children (before COVID-19) The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 identified that before the pandemic, inequalities in outcomes for children in Australia were known and the pandemic has exposed and ‘probably widened a number of those inequalities.’54 The Special Rapporteur on the right to education has also identified that while new grounds of discrimination may be of increasing importance in the post COVID-19 context, such as the lack of access to the internet, the new grounds simply reflect pre-existing structural inequalities.55 The WA Commission for Children and Young People noted in their 2021 Speaking Out Survey that the negative findings on mental health, the gender gap in wellbeing and perceptions of safety of children were all evident in the 2019 survey, which predated the pandemic.56 Previous disease outbreaks, natural disasters and financial downturns, also provide sufficient evidence to show that children would also be particularly vulnerable to child abuse and neglect during COVID-19.57 Australian communities have long experienced disasters. Following the drought, bushfires and flooding in NSW during 2019 to early 2020, the NSW Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People consulted with over 1400 children via focus groups and an online poll to hear their experiences, and to provide them a platform to inform decision-makers on how best to support their needs before, during and after disaster.58 The outcome report provides invaluable information on the impact of disasters on children.59 The 10 Years Beyond Bushfires Report also notes that even very young children can be affected by the disaster for years afterwards, and that all children should be involved in recovery decisions and activities in age appropriate ways.60 52 | Developing responsive policies to address the impact of disasters on children requires appropriately disaggregated data. AIHW notes gaps in child-specific data due to national data sources being predominantly administrative – information collected as part of service delivery with surveys generally administered only to those aged 15 and over or 18 and over.61 This means that the voices of young people under 15 years and sometimes 15–18 years are missing. Reporting on the voices of young people may require looking at different modes of data collection and understanding how children and young people would like to see their opinions and data reported.62 Reporting data for different population groups, critical for understanding issues of inequity, are also missing. The groups include: • • • • • • children and young people of refugee and asylum seeker families children and young people from CALD backgrounds or children born overseas children and young people living and who have lived in out-of-home care incarcerated children and young people children and young people with disability children and young people who identify as LGBTQIA+.63 (e) Regulatory basis for decision-making during the pandemic In Australia, there is no single law which gives one level of government sole power to formulate and implement a national response to an emergency or disaster. However, the federal government has powers and functions in various federal laws which may be exercised during states of emergency to assist the states and territories in responding to and managing the emergency.