SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:41): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Is the reason for increasing the capacity of the Special Investigations Unit, as indicated in her ministerial statement this afternoon, because of a backlog of serious employee misconduct reports or is it because of an increase in such reports?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:41): I thank the member for Unley for this question. The reason for increasing the number of people in the Special Investigations Unit is to ensure that we have timely and thorough investigations. Interestingly, the member for Unley has been out quoting that there is a backlog of 50 investigations in the unit currently—well, actually, he did not say 'currently'; I do not think he was able to tell the media currently the numbers. But can I advise the house that, in 2012, there were 51 ongoing investigations that were listed for that year—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Yes, 51—35 of those were new investigations and 24 of those were closed during the year. It is important to put this in context. We have 22,800 teachers. In 2008, there were 70. So this is a reduction of 27 per cent compared to 2008; 2012 is the lowest number of investigations since 2008.