House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1) 53 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Child Protection Child Protection Mr MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Leader of the Opposition Child Protection Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): A supplementary: has the government inquired as to whether Mr Debelle is available to undertake the royal commission? The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL House of Assembly Cheltenham Premier Child Protection The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:30): Not yet, but Mr Debelle or others of his eminence would, of course, be outstanding candidates for the role. We need to consider a range of matters, including expertise which may be capable of being brought into the inquiry. They are all matters that are exercising our judgement at the moment. As I say, I have already had some initial discussions with the Leader of the Opposition about the possible identity of somebody who might fulfil this function. I think it is also probably worth mentioning at this juncture that there is an existing royal commission into child sexual abuse which is currently on foot at the federal level. It is more likely than not that this matter could be the subject of interest by that royal commission, but it may well also be the case that there would be a separate need for South Australia to have its own inquiry, having regard to the needs of its own system. It is probably also, I think, worth pointing out that, while the royal commission is a crucially important part, in my view, of the way in which we should proceed, it shouldn't preclude the work that will happen immediately, at the level of the department, to take steps now. There are obviously urgent steps and, to the extent that they learn or discover things, or propose solutions for the future, they could potentially be inputs into a later inquiry.