House of Assembly: Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Contents

CHILD PROTECTION INQUIRY

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:17): Again, to the Minister for Education and Child Development: will the Peter Allen review, announced only three months after the last education department restructure, lead to another education department restructure?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:17): We are taking the Debelle inquiry very seriously, and I have taken my conversations with families very seriously. There is no doubt that there are things that need to change within the education department. When those things are identified, we need someone in there to help Mr Bartley. It is a huge task that he has. He has already commenced a lot of work in relation to the structure of the department and how education services are delivered out in the community, but we also have to be looking at the operations of the central office.

One of the things that was highlighted in the report was the fact that there was not one person responsible for the management of these serious cases. We have remedied that, and that commenced on 1 July. But there is more that needs to be done, and there certainly is, without doubt, a culture in the department that needs to be addressed.