Question Time

Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Premier: how soon will the government move to establish the royal commission referenced in his statement today?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:27): Thank you sir, and I thank the honourable member for his question. It is probably worth reflecting on the stage at which the particular matter that is before the courts is at in constructing the answer. While there have been charges, the police are continuing their investigations, so during this phase of the police continuing their investigations—and obviously that involves matters that are intimately associated with the matters into which we would seek to inquire—we would not want to disturb their work, to jeopardise the successful or proper prosecution into the matter. Nor would we wish to distract them in any way from their important work.

What we are giving thought to at the moment is the notion that at some point it may well be possible to begin an inquiry which looked at matters which were separate from the particular matters at stake. Such an inquiry could commence and begin its work and then at an appropriate time the particular matter in question might then become the subject of that inquiry. They are the matters we are giving thought to at the moment. We are also giving thought to the possible identity of a person who would be the proper person to carry out such an inquiry.

I have said before that I thought that this needed an inquiry at the highest level—something in the nature of a judicial inquiry that would most likely take the form of a royal commission—so that people could be satisfied that what was arrived at was arrived at through the highest process of inquiry that was able to draw on all of the information with all of the coercive powers that correspond to a royal commission. The short answer is we haven't reached a concluded view about when, but we will consult with the Leader of the Opposition and his team about how we construct an inquiry that the whole community can have confidence in.