CHILDREN IN STATE CARE INQUIRY

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:02): Will the Minister for Families and Communities advise if the government will immediately proceed to investigate child sexual abuse in all other Aboriginal communities across the state now that Commissioner Mullighan has completed his report? When the opposition called on the government last year to expand the terms of reference of the Mullighan inquiry to include all Aboriginal communities and not be restricted to the APY lands, the minister responded as follows:

It is in the interests of all involved in the inquiry that the inquiry conclude at its scheduled time—31 December 2007.

We know that has not been the case and we have had to wait another four months, but the minister went on to say:

To extend it beyond this date in order to enable it to embark on a wider inquiry would do a disservice to all those who are waiting for its report.

We now have the report and, in both the Northern Territory and Western Australia, they have expanded their terms of reference.

The SPEAKER: Order! That is way beyond what is needed to explain the question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (15:03): I think those remarks have been vindicated. I think the level of urgency that is necessary to respond to the matters that have been revealed just in the APY lands means that having the report in a most timely way possible was the correct decision for the parliament to make. One needs to look at the original ambitions for this inquiry which were, in fact, to get people to come forward. That did not happen; people did not come forward. So, Commissioner Mullighan then chose to spend the balance of his effort working out why they did not come forward.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, they didn't come forward.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is always valuable to speak from a position of information, and I invite the member to read the report. Frankly, I do not expect that she has had the time to do that in the time that has been available. If she did read the report, she would understand that no individual victims came forward.

What Commissioner Mullighan has had to do, in a sense, is to construct inferentially from medical records and other anecdotal material the number of people who have been sexually abused. But the point about that is a very powerful one. The 46 recommendations go to the question of barriers, the barriers that prevent people from coming forward.

Commissioner Mullighan has not made a recommendation that there be a further inquiry. We will give this due consideration because, as I say, cabinet has only had an opportunity to make an initial response, but my initial impression is that many of the lessons that we have learnt from this inquiry are of quite important universal application.

I think we can look at other communities with the benefit of this report and consider what steps need to be taken, but we cannot underestimate the powerful urgency of acting in our most remote and largest Aboriginal community—and that is what we will do. We make no apology for choosing the APY lands first, and we will take the urgent steps that we have spoken of and we will take the further steps that need to be taken in the coming weeks and months.